


A Fresh Start

by skyewatson



Series: The Queen's Ship [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Completely ignoring timelines, Danny knows everything, Endgame Stackson, F/M, M/M, Scott is clueless, Slow Build, Stiles is Thea's project, Stiles is her gay sassy best friend (maybe), Stiles tries to impress Lydia, Thea Queen becomes Stiles' best friend, Thea is a matchmaker, Thea is awesome, Thea ships Stackson, Werewolves Are Still Real, Why Is Life So Hard, eventual olicity
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-02-23
Updated: 2014-06-05
Packaged: 2018-01-13 11:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 25,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1224097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skyewatson/pseuds/skyewatson
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver sends Thea to live in Beacon Hills after the incident in the Glades. All she has to do is stay out of trouble, stay out of sight and get good grades so she can graduate and move on with her life. On her first day she runs into Stiles Stilinski and adopts him as her new best friend. He's completely dorky and kind of cute but he's in love with Lydia Martin and Thea will be damned if she lets Stiles be invisible. If he wants the girl she's going to help him, even if she thinks there is someone better for him to be with.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. New house, new town, new friend

Thea Queen wandered down the empty hallways, trying to navigate her way through the school with the crude map printed out on the back of the timetable the school had given her. She'd only flown in that morning and been driven two towns over into Beacon Hills by Felicity who had been given the day off by Oliver so the blonde could help her settle in. The only problem was that the administration office had been caught up in first day frenzy and someone had misplaced her timetable. So she had been forced to wait for that and in the chaos of it all they had forgotten to show her around. Thea wouldn't have minded if someone had even just shown her to her first class but they hadn't even done that. So she'd taken to walking around the empty halls trying to find her first class.

She was studying the map so intently that she didn't notice the boy running down the fall, not until she collided with him, both of them falling to the ground. They scrambled around to pick up the books that had been scattered everywhere and she stopped to look at the guy in front of her. He looked roughly her age with short brown hair, matching eyes and cute little moles on his fair skin. Not her type but he was cute.

She stood up and brushed off her jeans and straightened out her black blazer. The boy straightened out his red hoodie and she averted her eyes when he caught her staring at the bruise on his hip. It wasn't the good kind of bruise either but it wasn't her business, no matter how much she wanted to ask. He handed her the books she'd dropped and she smiled at him, cradling them to her chest.

 

"I'm sorry about that, I really should be more careful. I'm always walking into things and tripping over my own to feet and Scott says I should be covered in bubble wrap at all times because I'm ridiculous. My name is Stiles."

Thea's smile widened at the babbling, reminding her of a certain blonde who was probably alternating between running around Beacon hills and yelling at her brother back home over the phone. "I'm Thea Queen. Don't worry; I'm kind of ridiculous too. And I was the one that wasn't paying attention to where I was going."

"Do you need help finding your first class? I'm surprised they didn't send out an army to show you around, you are royalty after all." 

"Royalty sucks when the kingdom hates you." She replies. "But I'd love help finding my first class. I have chemistry with Harris."

She watched Stiles cringe. "Ouch. The guy is evil. But good thing for you that we're in the same class and he will be too busy yelling at me to notice you're late."

 

Thea followed Stiles down a hallway, up a staircase and to a classroom that looked just like all the others. Stiles walked into the classroom without knocking and she watched as the whole class froze and stared at them. If she hadn't had experience in ignoring blatant scrutinize stares she might have blushed but she was a Queen and they just didn't do that. Being a queen meant keeping composure all the time, even when you couldn't. She'd learnt that when she's gone to her brother and fathers funeral six years ago.

"Late on the first day of school? Not a good start Mr Stilinski, you don't want detention so soon into the year."

Thea saw Stiles open his mouth and before he could do something stupid she pushed past him and introduced herself. "I'm terribly sorry I'm late sir. I just flew in this morning and we had to drive two towns over and the administration office couldn't find my timetable. Stiles knew I was arriving today and found me wandering around the hallways and showed me how to get here. I'm Thea Queen."

Mr. Harris just snapped at them to sit down and Thea let Stiles take the lead. She watched him frown at a dark haired boy sitting next to a girl with a lovesick expression on her face. Thea took the seat next to him and Smiled at the surprised look on his face. She turned to the front and pulled out a notebook and tried in vain to pay attention to whatever Mr. Harris was talking about.

It was an hour later when the bell rang that Thea sighed in relief. She had literally just spent the last hour attempting to learn about something she had no understanding about. She waited outside the classroom and intercepted Stiles when he walked out, giggling when he jumped in surprise.

 

"Thea!" 

"You're cute, you ever been told that?"

"All the time. Clearly." He gestured to his body.

"I wanted to thank you for showing me to my class." She ignored the self-depreciating tone he'd spoken with.

"You saved me in there, he would have given me detention for sure."

"Well you can make it up to me by doing me a favor."

"I thought you owed me?" He backtracks quickly.

"Are you any good at chemistry?"

"Yeah I mean Harris doesn't think so but the guy hates me."

"Well that's good because I need a tutor. I just spent an hour doodling in my new notebook because he was going on about things my mind doesn't understand."

"Tutor you?" He gaped before scratching the back of his neck and grinning. "Sure I can do that."

 

Thea was about to reply when stiles went still beside her. She turned around to see a strawberry blonde girl strut towards her. Thea knew immediately the girl was the "it girl". She had been that girl back in starling city. She recognized the walk, the expression and the subtle things the girl was doing to make the people around her feel inferior. The girl stopped in front of her and smiled in a way Thea knew wasn't genuine.

 

"Thea right? I'm Lydia Martin. I wanted to invite you to sit with me and my friends at lunch."

"Do we wear pink on Wednesdays?" Thea asks.

Lydia rolls her eyes. "No but I do like what you're wearing now."

 

Thea looked down at her outfit, dark blue skinny jeans, ballet flats, a loose grey shirt that showed a little cleavage and a black blazer rolled up to her elbows. It wasn't her best outfit and she could tell it was a line Lydia had used before when scouting potential new friends. She smiled back anyway and made a similar comment about the girl's outfit despite the fact she didn't like her heels or the earrings she was wearing.

"Sure, that would be fantastic."

"I have to go to class now but I'll find you at lunch."

 

Thea watches her walk away and turned to stiles. "Have you got English now?"

"Uh yeah."

"Great, you can fill me in on who she is then on the way."

"Her name is Lydia Martin and she's a goddess. She's perfect and really smart but doesn't show it. She’s in a whole bunch of my classes and we kind of battle it out for the top score. She doesn’t notice me much though and she’s dating Jackson, the lacrosse co-captain. He's a jerk.”

"How powerful is she here?"

"One wrong move and you might as well go live in Australia."

"Okay so avoiding her isn't an option."

"Why would you want to? It's Lydia Martin!"

"Because she's not genuine. She wants me for her collection because I'm pretty, my wardrobe meets her standard and my name is kind of a big deal."

"So? I'd kill for her to notice me. I've been in love with her since third grade."

"That's insane, you realize that right? She didn't even say hello to you. Back at my old school I would have said hello to anyone if they were with someone I wanted to talk to."

"Yeah well welcome to my life. Everyone ignores me until they can’t and no one listens to me until they have no choice.”

\---

Thea spent the rest of the day dreading lunch time and the insincerity she knew it would bring. It doesn't take long for Lydia to find her and invite her to the table she's taken as her territory and Thea's almost surprised to see the guy Stiles had been looking at in chemistry with the same girl next to him. Lydia introduces her to Allison, the brunette, and the mystery guy who happened to be Scott, Allison's boyfriend. A gorgeous guy sits down next to Lydia and kisses her on the cheek. He had styled blonde hair; gorgeous eyes and cheekbones that made Thea want to swoon. Obviously this was who stiles had mentioned before.

 

"Jackson this is Thea Queen." Lydia introduces her boyfriend to Thea.

"Nice to meet you. When she says Queen does she mean-"

"The daughter of the woman who tried to level half a city and killed over a hundred people? Yeah, I'm that Thea Queen." She snaps, turning around.

 

Thea sees Stiles enter the cafeteria and she jumped out of her seat, walking over to him. She feels his shock when she grabs his hand and drags him over to Lydia's table. Thea whispers to him to just go with it and he relaxes next to her somewhat. If she has to sit with them she's going to do it with a friendly face. Besides, Lydia might notice him. Thea sits down at her chair pushing her books off the one next to her she had been reserving for him.

 

"Hey Scott." Stiles says to the guy across from him.

"Dude I can't believe Harris didn't give you detention."

"Harris is a dick." Thea blurts out and Stiles grins.

A tanned guy sits down next to Jackson and Thea introduces herself. Apparently his name is Danny and he's Jackson's best friend. Thea’s gaydar is going insane and she’s already mentally constructing plans on how to get to know the Hawaiian better. She knew from experience he would be the one to talk to about what was really going on around this school. Thea made a show of untangling her hand from Stiles' and asks him if he can go get them lunch. Stiles does immediately and she giggled when he almost trips. When she turns back around Jackson raises an eyebrow at her.

 

"Seriously? Stilinski?"

"It's the eyes. And the moles. And the lips. He's funny too." Thea shrugs casually.

"You could do better. Much better." Lydia says chewing on an apple.

"It's not about doing better. He's a good guy. Given the chance he would surprise you."

"Doubt it." Jackson snorts.

"He's not totally bad." Danny agrees. "He's always asking me if I find him attractive though."

"Do you?" She asks with a grin.

"It's Stiles."

"Yes it is.” 

 

Stiles returned soon after with two trays of food and Thea plays a game of food stealing with Stiles as she watches the table communicate. Lydia is obviously Queen Bee, Jackson the jock boyfriend, Danny is his best friend but athletic in his own right. Allison is Lydia's best friend, the girl Lydia recruited before Thea. Scott is Allison's boyfriend and he has been best friend with Stiles since first grade. She can tell Stiles is tolerated and Scott is too busy head over heels with Allison to notice. The whole concept makes Thea frown, it’s not fun when your best friend suddenly up and forgets you because of a girl or guy. She’s been through it too. Thea chats with everyone but makes sure to pay extra attention to Stiles, incorporating him into conversations because she knows what it's like to be left out in a group of people and she’ll be damned if they don’t appreciate Stiles by the end of the year.

 

Thea nudges Stiles and offers him a carrot stick. "Trade you for the pudding?"

Stiles snorts. "Only if you give me your coke and the piece of gum in your pocket."

"Deal." She pushes the drink towards him and snatches up the desert. He looks at her and she rolls her eyes, standing up so she can fish the piece of gum out of her pocket. Everyone is watching her and she can feel the heat of their gazes as they study her. 

"You know this could be the beginning of the perfect friendship." He tells her as she slides it to him.

"Keep the pudding coming and I'll marry you."

"Not sure I'm ready for that level of commitment but you're hot."

"Thanks Stiles." She rolls her eyes. "Objectifying much?"

"Remember anything about the eyes and the moles and the lips?" Danny smiles.

Stiles gapes and pretends to be outraged. "You objectified me?"

"Of course I did. You're a guy. Besides they wanted to know what I like about you."

"And you said my lips?"

"You how to use them."

 

Scott choked from across the table and Thea laughs. Lydia looked bored and Jackson looked like he didn’t want to be hearing any of this but Thea knew it was bugging him. She knew that the jock was dying to know why she's so interested in Stiles. But out of everyone Danny is her favorite person at the table because he just looked impressed and she knows that her comment got to him because every few seconds his eyes drift back to Stiles’ mouth. Between the way Stiles is blushing and the comment Danny made earlier, Thea knew she was right when she pegged him as bisexual. She had a sixth sense for these kinds of things and one of the reasons why she was so keen to have Stiles as a friend was because she needed someone she could talk to about everything. Even guys. Especially guys.

Thea's phone rings and she picked it up as soon as she sees the caller ID. She walked away from the table and over towards the doors of the hall.

"Felicity! How's everything going!"

"I had to use my loud voice with the guys that delivered the couch, I mean does it look like I could set that up by myself? And your brother has already sent me thirty texts and called me nine times."

"I'm not surprised, Ollie wouldn't function without you."

"Tell me about it. He tried to get me to find his socks the other day."

"And what did you tell him?"

"What I say when he asks me to make him coffee: not my job and he can do it himself."

Thea giggles. "He's useless."

"He's Oliver though. I'm just glad he can't lie to me because it makes it easier when he does something bad because he can't try and cover it up. I'm calling though because I have to wait around here for another delivery so I won't be able to get you from school. Do you need me to send you the car?"

"Nah it's fine, I've got a ride."

"Okay, good."

"How did you know it was okay to call me? It could have been class time."

"I hacked the servers. Horrible set up really especially with so much important information."

Thea grinned. "You're my favourite."

"Don't let Digg hear you say that."

"I won't. I'll see you after school."

"Have fun."

 

When felicity hung up Thea walked over to the group again and this time sat in Stiles lap, making him jump. She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled at him.

 

"Why do I feel like I should be terrified?" He asks.

"I was wondering if you could drive me home this afternoon? My brother's friend can't come pick me up and I don't have a car."

"Yeah that's fine."

"I'm going to have to apologize to Felicity."

"Why?"

"Because I told her she was my favourite but now I'm pretty sure that's you."

 

Stiles blushed and she slid out of his lap back into her own seat. She went back to eating the pudding and she traded questions and answers with Allison while Scott talked to Stiles.

 

"So because I flew in this morning with Felicity I haven't actually seen my new house yet. Do you guys want to come over and have a look? I'm pretty sure I'll be able to find some popcorn and we can order some take out and watch movies."

Lydia almost immediately agrees and promises her that she and Jackson will be there after school. Allison agrees and so does Scott. Danny decides too accept the invitation but only after Thea sees Jackson give him a look.

After lunch they all made plans to meet in the car park. Thea went to leave to go to art when Jackson pulled her back. The jock looked at her with a disbelieving expression on his face.

 

"What?" She asks.

"Why Stilinski?" He repeats.

"Because Stiles is a nice guy. He's that guy you think is kinda weird and not worth your time but spend a little time with him and you'll find out there is so much more." Thea moves in closer to Jackson. "And trust me Jackson, you want to know what he's hiding."

 

She turned and walked away, managing to find her art class on time despite the delay with Jackson. Thea hoped that her last comment is stuck in his head. Jackson clearly had a problem with Stiles but Thea knew it's more than the whole Lydia thing. She was determined to figure it all out because Stiles had now become her project and if he became her sassy gay best friend in the process, well she wouldn't protest.

 

\---

It's not until they are half way to the address Felicity texted to her during art that Stiles asks.

 

"Why did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Hold my hand, sit on my lap. Pretend to like me."

"I like you stiles just not that way."

"Then why? I wanted to ask but you told me to go along with it."

"Because I want to help you. You like Lydia but she's not going to give you the time of day unless you get her attention."

"Why help me though? You don’t know me. You could have picked anyone but me."

"Because I've spent a lot of time around fake people and the first person I met here wasn't and he helped me. Besides you’re entitled to sit at that table. Jackson has a stick up his ass but you should talk to Allison more. Scott has his head up her ass but she's more sensible and she's Lydia's best friend."

"But how is you being all over me going to help?"

"Because I'm Thea Queen. I'm the kind of person Lydia wants to be. She might be the Queen Bee of Beacon Hills but I was the bee of Starling City. If I'm interested in you it's going to make her curious and that's how you're going to impress her. I can only get her to look, you have to have the moves."

"And being your fake boyfriend is going to help?"

"You're not my fake boyfriend stiles. You're my bisexual best friend. We can hug and hold hands and it doesn't have to mean anything. I can joke around and we can banter about your sexual prowess and it doesn't matter. No labels need apply."

 

The car is silent until he turns to her and says, "I'm your best friend?"

 

That in it's own makes Thea laugh because what he questions is being her best friend, not the fact that she called him bisexual.

It takes a few more minutes until they pull up to the address, an extravagant home in a rich street. All the houses are lined up pretty as can be. Thea noted that it was a different kind of posh than back at home. Back at home at the Queen mansion they have high hedges and gates and a large property with security cameras and the likes. Here she can tell it's about showing off modern architecture and pretty gardens. All the security is internal because while they have money, it's not secrets they are trying to keep. Not like back home.

Jackson's car pulled up behind them, as does Allison's. They all pile out and Lydia nods approvingly of the outside of the house. Thea can't help but agree she loves the large windows and beautiful design. It's nice, not home but still nice.

When they walk up to the door she gets a text from Felicity asking her to get a friend to put their hand up to a panel near the front door. She grabbed Stiles' hand and placed it there not even bothering to ask. The scanner beeps angrily and then she gets another text asking her this time to put her own hand against it. She complies and this time it beeps happily and she can hear the lock of the front door click. Of course Felicity would give their handprint scanning front door lock emotions.

Thea pushed the door open and they all tumbled inside. The front half of the house is one level, the ceiling reaching up to the second story. The back half is split into two levels with a beautiful staircase leading upstairs. The kitchen is large and open with ample room at the kitchen bench to sit at. The dining room is nice but simple and it's the lounge room she really loves. The floorboards are a deep rich colour, the flat screen is obscene and when she flops out onto the couch she can see why it would be ridiculous for anyone to expect Felicity to move or assemble it.

Speaking of Felicity, Thea watched her walk down the stairs looking as awkwardly unprofessional as always. She's wearing shorts with a buttoned up dress shirt and she's completely barefoot. The tablet in her hands doesn't surprise her but when she hears Oliver's voice come from it that does surprise her. She bounds over to her and takes the tablet from her hands and sees her brother on Skype.

 

"Hey Ollie!" She smiles.

"Hey Speedy. How was school?"

"Well my chemistry teacher is a dick but I made friends and they're all here actually. The house is awesome by the way, great choice."

"Tell that to Felicity, I've been drowning in stock market meetings and just left it all to her to decide."

"If you don't give her a raise soon we will be having a serious conversation about how you under appreciate your beautiful and intelligent PA."

"Already written down on my to-do list Thea."

"The conversation or the raise?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you should add an extra zero for doing all this work she's doing and another one for putting up with you."

"That's pretty harsh Speedy."

"And no less than you deserve." Thea walked over to her friends and flipped the camera on the tablet. "These are my new friends. There's Scott and Allison, Danny and Jackson, Lydia and then Stiles."

"Which one should I feel sorry for?" 

She turns the camera back around and frowns at her brother. "Stiles and that's mean."

"No less than you deserve speedy. Which one is he again?"

"The cute dorky one with the moles." She says poking her tongue out at him.

"As much as I want to hear more about your newest victim I need to talk to Felicity, Thea."

"Okay, bye Ollie."

 

She handed the tablet back at Felicity who begins to talk to Ollie and before she's even out of the room Thea can hear them arguing.

 

"That's your brothers PA?" Danny asks, impressed.

"Yep," Thea says with pride. "She's actually a computer geek, one of the best from QC’s IT department. He had a broken laptop, she fixed it, they became friends and by the time Ollie needed to step up at the company he decided he wanted her as his girl Friday."

"Wait what's a PA?" Scott asks.

Allison rolls her eyes and smiles at her boyfriend. "Personal assistant."

Felicity walks back into the room. "I'm so not a personal assistant. Personal assistants sleep with their bosses and make coffee. I'm an executive assistant meaning I make sure the company doesn't fall apart, make sure Oliver actually gets some sleep and manage any impending doom that falls upon us because of Oliver and his inexperience all while wearing ridiculous high heels."

"And she's a certified genius. They had her tested and everything." She turns to the blonde, "You know you're kind of bad ass Felicity." 

"Of course I am. Oliver is trying to convince me to stay here for another two weeks to get you settled in."

"When is Raisa coming?" Thea asks.

"In a few days."

"Just stay until then, I'm sure Oliver is dying without you."

"He's already fired three temps." 

"Three?" Lydia looks impressed.

"How is that even possible?" Jackson asks.

"It's my brother." Thea shrugs

"He said they were unprofessional."

"Which means?" Danny prompts.

"The first one scheduled a meeting during his lunch break, the second offered to make him coffee and the third apparently tried to seduce him."

"The third one I totally understand." Danny grins.

Thea pretends to puke. "Danny that's my brother! And I thought you were cool."

"I’d be mad about the lunch break but not enough to fire someone." Allison said.

"Yeah but he always takes Diggle and Felicity to big belly burgers so they can eat really good fast food and Diggle can flirt with his girlfriend Carly. It's like sacred time."

"But the coffee?" Stiles asks. "I totally don't get. Like at all. If someone offered to make me coffee I’d pay the. Like someone should make me coffee. But I'm not allowed it. Messes with my ADHD and with my dosage of Adderall... Not good." Stiles shakes his head.

Felicity grins at her fellow rambler. "I don't do coffee. It's a rule. We even have a list in our office that is titled "things Felicity Smoak does not do" and making coffee is third on the list."

"What's first and second?" Lydia asks.

"I don't run interference with ex or current girlfriends and I don't wear heels after five pm."

"That's kind of specific." Scott points out.

"Five pm is when QC closes." Thea tells him.

"Oliver and I do our fair share of over time work with people like Walter, Thea's step father but after five I refuses to wear heels." Felicity tells Thea's new ‘friends’. "I'll work until midnight if I have to but I will not do it in heels."

"You're lucky though because Walter has a soft spot for you and Oliver doesn't care what you do. Like seriously you kicked that guy in the balls from accounting and all Ollie did was ask you if you wanted chicken pad thai for dinner." Thea grins. "How did you even find out about the reasons why he fired them?"

"That guy tried to feel me up in the elevator and Diggle has been giving me play by play commentary via text."

"And he just became my new favourite person."

"You seriously need to make your mind up about that." Stiles pouts.

Thea laughs and hugs him. "Give me your pudding cups until we graduate and I swear there will be no one else but you."

"Careful he might take you up on that." Scott says.

"Nah he won't," Thea grins "as much as I'd like to think I'm all Stiles will ever need I'm not stupid enough to believe that. I don't even have Stiles' favourite body part."

 

Thea smirked to herself as she watched the room react. Felicity gave her a look that tells her she knows what Thea is doing. Lydia looked like she doesn't know if she should believe Thea or not. Danny is re-evaluating every thought he's ever had about Stiles. Jackson is giving off weird vibes even if all that's changed in his face is that he arches a single eyebrow. Scott looks like he's about to cough his lungs up and Allison had gone bright red. Stiles himself looks like he's trying to decide between strangling her or drowning her.

"Let's have a look at the rest of the house shall we?" Thea asks with a feral grin.

\---

The rest of the house is as beautiful as expected. Felicity really did a good job in picking it. The upstairs bathroom is large and open, with a big mirror, bathtub in the center of the room and a shower hidden in an alcove that looks heavenly. The spare bedrooms are somewhat decorated, enough to stay in but they still need work. Thea can tell Felicity has been living off coffee all day if the house is this far compete. The office is already set up and totally modernized; the polar opposite to what Thea is used to. Felicity has already set up her computers and Thea can see her favourite books line the shelves of the bookcase.

Thea's favourite is her bedroom. It's obviously the master bedroom of the house and has a large en suit attached. There is a ridiculous large bed in the middle with her favourite bedspread and her childhood teddy bear is perched on top of a mountain of pillows. Large fancy letters spell THEA above her bed and the bedside tables are adorned with cute lamps and picture frames full of pictures of her dad, Walter, Diggle, Carly, Felicity and Oliver. The flooring is like the floor in the lounge room but a large soft rug spreads out from under the bed.

 

Felicity knocks on the door and comes in. "I haven't done much in here, I know what it's like to want a space of your own and it's important that you can personalize it the way you want."

Thea hugs Felicity. "It's perfect. You are perfect. Seriously this is awesome."

"It's so different to your room at home I was a little worried."

"Don't be unless that bed isn't comfy because if it isn't then you should be worried."

"We don't all sleep on rock like mattresses like Oliver."

"So you know what my brothers bed feels like Felicity?"

 

Felicity squeaks and all but runs out of the room and Thea giggled. Everyone have her a questioning look and she sighed.

 

"My brother and Felicity are perfect for each other. They like each other but won't admit it. It's an ongoing project of mine but I will be damned if they don't get married and have cute kids for me to spoil."

“I’m not going to lie, she’s the last person I thought someone like your brother would go for.” Lydia tells her.

“She’s scary intelligent and actually brilliant. Everyone assumes she got her job because she is sleeping with Ollie but it’s actually because she’s kind of perfect. Felicity rambles a lot and he finds it adorable and he was on an island for five years so it’s good that she’s kind of a technology expert because he’s hopeless. But she doesn’t let him walk all over her and Felicity hasn’t tried to sleep with him so she has his respect.”

“The Island really changed him then.” Stiles blurts out.

“Yeah it did. He’s still my brother just not the same playboy everyone thinks he is. He learnt to appreciate us when he came back. That’s why Felicity has lasted so long, she’s ridiculously overqualified to do the job she does and they drive each other crazy when they butt heads but he fights to keep her because she’s important. Plus he figures if he buys her new shoes and gives her expensive bottles of wine she’ll forgive him every time he acts like an ass.”

“And that works?” Allison asks.

“Totally. Except for the time she walked in on him having sex with his ex-girlfriend. He had to buy her a whole new outfit after that.”

Stiles’ stomach grumbles and he blushes when everyone looks at him. “I’m a guy! And Thea ate most of my food at lunch time.”

“No I didn’t. I ate your pudding cup; you ate most of my food. But why don’t we order take out and go set up the lounge room?”

 

Eventually everyone agrees on Thai food and Danny calls up to order because he’s the only one who can keep track of what everyone wants with all the arguments going on. Thea gets Jackson to carry her mattress down the stairs and into the lounge room while Stiles and Scott carry the other one down together. Pushed together there is enough room for everyone to comfortably lie down and Thea grinned as she threw pillows at the guys from the top floor of the house. Stiles trips and bumps into Jackson who snapped at him. Thea noticed the red tinge to his cheeks and raised an eyebrow. Definitely worth investigating. 

The Thai food arrives and everyone eats as The Avengers plays on the flat screen. Felicity sits on the coach after being coerced out of the upstairs office by the voice of the Tony Stark. The movie continues on and Thea can’t help but laugh when she sees Danny and Stiles’ eyes glued to Captain America’s ass. At least they both have good taste. 

After the movie Thea extends an invitation for everyone to stay the night. Allison and Scott decline, telling her they have to get back to their respective parents. Danny and Jackson have plans for breakfast tomorrow and Lydia has online shopping to do. Thea sees Stiles about to decline as well but then Felicity catches his attention with the laptop in her hands and then he’s distracted, already sparking up a conversation with her about something Thea has no idea about. Thea rolled her eyes and ushers them all outside, walking them to their cars.

 

Lydia gets into the car immediately but Jackson doesn’t, turning to her. “Stilinski is seriously staying the night here?”

“Jealous Jackson?”

“Why would I be jealous of Stilinski?”

“Who said I was talking about Stiles?”

 

Jackson doesn’t reply and gets into his car, slamming the door shut harder than Thea knows he normally would. Messing with Jackson is too much fun to pass up, especially considering how ridiculous his reactions are. Thea watched as they all drove away before heading back into her house where Stiles and Felicity were still rambling on about some kind of software she’d never heard of. 

At least Felicity approved of her new friend, which made Thea happy because she was going to be spending a lot of time with Stiles. After all, once Thea decided on a project she became dedicated to it and nothing could stop her.


	2. Coffee, Chemistry and Lacrosse Tryouts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I was supposed to update like a week ago. Sorry about that things kind of went insane. I’m home now visiting my parents which is nice because I’m lonely as hell at uni, downside is that my mum’s cousin died and everyone is planning the funeral and the hospital lied about how he died, they said he died from a heart attack, the coroner decided that he actually died from a cyst in his body that burst that they knew about. It’s all kind of confusing. And then, get this, my computer chucked a tantrum and I lost everything I’ve been working on. Not just this chapter, I lost all my other stories and ideas I had (a lot) and my uni assignment that is due in like two days.
> 
>  
> 
> So suffice to say this week has kind of sucked.

Thea groaned as sunlight flooded the room. She threw a hand over her face and turned over trying to escape into her pillows. Trying to chase the perfect dream she’d been having wasn’t possible though because someone was poking her in the arm. She slapped the hand away but whoever it was persisted. Eventually she turned over and opened her eyes, glaring at a grinning Felicity.

 

 

“How the hell can you be up this early Blondie?”

 

“ Your brother has me up at all hours,” She smiled before realizing what she’d said, “And I totally don’t mean like that. Oh my god I’m already doing it and it’s like six thirty in the morning.”

 

“Yeah about that, why am I awake at six thirty in the morning?” Thea groaned.

 

“You have school. I made coffee.”

 

“I can get down with the coffee, not sure about this whole school thing though.”

 

 

Thea dropped back onto her pillow and watched as Felicity walked back out of the lounge room towards the kitchen. She turned on her side and saw straight through the glass windows Felicity had cleared to let sunlight into the room. On the mattress next to her, Stiles was spread out and saying something into his pillow. It took her a moment to realize he was actually sleep talking, or sleep mumbling if she wanted to be precise, and that he wasn’t actually talking to her. Thea shook him and laughed when he started awake, looking around confused.

 

 

“Awww shit did I get abducted again?” He moaned, rubbing his eyes.

 

Thea raised an eyebrow. “Would a kidnapper give you a mattress this comfortable to lie on?”

 

“No. Is that coffee I smell?”

 

“Yes that would be the coffee. Again, not something a kidnapper would give you.”

 

 

Thea rolled off her mattress and caught herself before she fully hit the floorboards. She jumped up and held out a hand, half dragging Stiles up from his starfish position on the mattress. He resisted and she almost fell on top of him but stopped herself by bracing her hands on his shoulders.

 

 

“How is it possible that I just woke up from a sleepover with a really beautiful girl, one that has her hands all over me, and I just feel weird? Like how is that even my life?” He groaned.

 

Thea grinned and gently patted his cheek. “Because you and I are never really going to happen and your brain has accepted that. Besides, you’re like a brother.”

 

“You know that’s really the last thing a guy wants to hear.”

 

“Have you seen my brother? Ollie is awesome. Be privileged that I’ve adopted you Stiles because it could be worse.”

 

“How could it be worse? I’m going to be stuck as a virgin forever.”

 

“I could be Lydia’s best friend and make sure you have no chance with her.”

 

“You’re evil.”

 

“I prefer devious but I’m also intelligent. The two concepts aren’t mutually exclusive and you’re going to need both if you want to change your life.”

 

“It’s too early for this conversation. Can we go drink coffee now?”

 

“Yes but don’t think I’ve forgotten about the fact that you’ve apparently been kidnapped before. We _will_ be talking about that.”

 

 

Thea walked into the kitchen, Stiles shuffling after her. She took a seat at the kitchen island drinking greedily from a cup Felicity slid to her. As she munched on a piece of toast Stiles sipped from his own coffee and sighed contently. Felicity just rolled her eyes and texted someone on her phone.

 

 

“What could you possibly need to be organizing this early in the morning?” Thea asked, shaking her head in amazement.

 

“I’m reminding your brother to feed Paperweight.”

 

“Paperweight?” Stiles asked.

 

Felicity didn’t even look up. “My turtle.”

 

“You have a turtle,” Stiles turned to Thea, “she has a turtle.”

 

“It’s really cute.” Thea nodded.

  
“I think I’m in love.”

 

Felicity laughed. “You’re like ten years younger than me Stiles, never happening.”

 

“What is with girls and rejecting me this morning? I’m going to develop a complex.”

 

“Stiles, Lydia has been rejecting you for ten years you already have a complex. I personally don’t get her appeal but love is delusional.”

 

“Ouch that was harsh Thea.”

 

“I didn’t say _you_ were delusional but for the record, you totally are. I just think that there are better people out there for you.”

 

“Why because I’m not good enough for her?”

 

“No because I think you’re too good for her.”

 

“You barely know me.”

 

“Trust me kid, Thea has a sixth sense for this kind of stuff. You don’t bet against her.” Felicity smiled.

 

“That I do. My sixth sense also tells me we need to shower and change before school because while I’m sure you’d rock the walk of shame, Stiles, I don’t think your dad is going to think the same when he finds out.”

 

“I have a change of clothes in my Jeep so we can eliminate the drive to my house. That gives you time to do whatever girly things you girls do in the morning.”

 

 

Thea finished her coffee and walked upstairs quickly showering and wrapping  a large towel around her body. She searched through her walk in closet and nodded to herself when she heard the water turn back on indicating Stiles was in the shower. Eventually she chose a summer dress with her second favourite pair of ballet flats. She pulled on a necklace and looked over her outfit, nodding. Beacon Hills wasn’t the kind of place she needed to go all out in.

 

She heard the water turn off and waited for a minute before knocking on the door. Stiles opened the door in just his jeans and she walked in, leaving the door open so any last warm air could escape. Thea pulled out a spare toothbrush and handed it to Stiles and they proceeded to brush their teeth, making faces at each other in the large mirror. When she was done she threw her hair up in a messy up do and began putting on her make up. She barely paid attention to what she was doing, her body on autopilot. Her eyes moved to Stiles when he cursed under his breath.

 

 

“What’s up?”

 

“I’m getting a pimple. I think the world hates me.”

 

“The world hates itself,” She rolled her eyes and pulled out a tub from the top drawer under the bench between the two sinks. “Here, put some of that on it and it’ll be gone in a day or two.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Yeah that crap is expensive. I’m pretty lucky though because I get a lot of samples of things and in return I review it and recommend things for a magazine in Starling City.”

 

“So this was one of the better products?”

 

“Yeah I liked it and bought a jar of the stuff. It was pocket change for me but on the relative scale it’s pretty expensive.”

 

“I’m surrounded by rich people.” He muttered.

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah, Lydia’s parents are rich, Jackson is loaded and when he turns eighteen he’s going to get his inheritance and settlement which is not fair because he’s a jackass. Danny’s parents are pretty well off, I mean the dude wears Armani and Allison’s family is old money. I’m not sure how much her family has on the scale but they work in the private weapons sector. They sell to guns and whatever else to the police.”

 

“Armani? Huh, nice taste.”

 

“I tell you Allison’s family are weapons dealers and you’re more interested in Danny’s aftershave?”

 

“I’m a girl. Weapons I don’t care for but I come from a social class where we talk in designer labels. Armani, Prada, Gucci, Coco Chanel….”

 

“Yeah colour me clueless about that kind of stuff.”

 

“Don’t worry I’ll give you a crash course. You’re going to need to know this kind of stuff if you want any chance of being with Lydia.”

 

“Seriously? Don’t girls just want guys to carry their stuff when they go shopping?”

 

“To an extent, sure, but girls ask questions and if you want to impress her you need to not look like a total idiot when she asks.”

 

“You know there’s more to Lydia Martin than you see at school. She’s really smart.”

 

“She could be smarter than Felicity and it wouldn’t matter to me Stiles. I have this rule, when I go to a restaurant I always watch how my friends treat the waiters and waitresses. If they are rude I disassociate myself from them. It’s the same concept. Lydia might be brilliant and the sun could shine from her ass but she acts like a dumb Barbie girl at school. She completely ignored you in the hall the other day. It’s better to have the kind of popularity where everyone likes you and you’re nice to them, not the kind where everyone likes you and you act like you’re above them.”

 

 

Thea watched as Stiles rubbed in the cream gingerly and smacked his hand away and turned his body so she could look at him properly. She dipped a finger into the cream and rubbed it into the blemish that was appearing on Stiles’ jaw. When she was satisfied she washed her hands and put the tub away again. She did one last cursory check of her make up and applied some more mascara before nodding to herself. Stiles pulled on his shirt and walked into her bedroom, sitting on her computer chair as he pulled on his shoes.

 

 

“We are going shopping at some point soon.”

 

Stiles looked up at her. “What’s wrong with what I’m wearing?”

 

“Nothing but you’re never getting laid in those jeans, your shoes look like they’re about to fall apart and while I’m sure Felicity appreciates your quirky super hero shirt, that’s not going to fly with the people at our school.”

 

“Yeah well my Jeep is kind of taking up all my money right now so in ten years I might have a new wardrobe.”

 

Thea rolled her eyes and pulled the charger out of her phone and handed Stiles his own charged phone. “I never said you were paying.”

 

Stiles followed her out of the room and down the stairs. “You aren’t paying for my clothes Thea.”

 

“Bye Blondie,” Thea yelled and pulled the front door shut behind them, “and yes I am. People are like accessories, if we’re going to be best friends you have to look nice.”

 

“So I’m basically a handbag?”

 

“Sure if that’s how you want to look at it. I looked at it like an expensive pair of heels, they cost a lot of money but you get the right kind and not only do they last forever, they are usually pretty good to you.”

 

“Yeah I like your analogy better.”

 

 

Surprisingly, they got to school early and had enough time to walk over to where Scott and Allison were. Thea wanted to get to know them because they were Stiles’ friends and she needed to know what she was working with. Allison was also another insight of the situation and Thea always appreciated data.

 

“Hey Scott, Allison.” Stiles nodded.

 

“So how was your sleepover?” Allison asked.

 

“Still a virgin.”

 

Thea laughed. “I don’t put out on the first day, Stiles. There’s this thing called class and I have it.”

 

“Well at least that’s not a no.” Scott grinned at his friend.

 

“If only you knew.” Stiles muttered.

 

Thea elbowed him in the side. “Stiles we should get going, class starts in a few minutes and I need to clean my locker.”

 

“Seriously? You only got it yesterday, how messy could it be?”

 

“Imagine Katrina.” She joked.

 

“Jesus Christ, you live with Felicity.”

 

“One, I don’t actually live with her, she has a bedroom at my house and at the Queen Mansion but she does own an apartment. Two, no one is as organized as Felicity.”

 

 

She watched Stiles roll his eyes and they said goodbye to Allison and Scott who were gazing at each other. The whole thing made Thea want to throw up; they looked like they belonged in Madam Puddifoot's. Stiles pretended to throw up and she was glad that she wasn’t the only person who thought it was sickening.

 

 

“What the hell?” Stiles gaped when Thea opened her locker.

 

Thea grinned with pride. “It’s impressive isn’t it?”

 

“What did you-? How? What? I repeat: what?”

 

“We have English first right?”

 

“Yeah and then Chemistry.” He answered almost dumbstruck, eyes still glued to the mess of textbooks and notebooks in her locker.

 

 

Thea handed Stiles the textbooks she needed and closed her locker door. They walked over to his locker and she held their books as he put his bag away and sorted what he needed. She smiled in surprise when he took all their books off her and held them in one hand and offered his other elbow to her. She hooked her arm around his and laughed as they marched off to their first. When they reached the class he opened the door for her and she curtsied before walking in and sitting at a desk. He slid into the one next to her and split up their books.

 

 

“Why thank you kind sir.”

 

“Anything for royalty Miss Queen.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Pair up and choose wisely, this assignment is worth forty percent of your grade. You will fail this class if you don’t do well on this assignment.”

 

 

Harris finished barking at the class and Thea jumped up. Instead of heading towards Stiles she slid into the empty seat across from Jackson and smiled at him. He raised an eyebrow at her and she couldn’t help but wonder if that was all ever Jackson did. He never reacted to anything with any kind of emotion from what she could tell. Not even when she’d let slip about Stiles’ sexual orientation yesterday.

 

 

“Not going with Stilinski?”

 

“Nah I don’t want to drag down his GPA like that and I’m pretty sure he’s happy with Danny as his partner.”

 

“So you’re willing to drag mine down?” Jackson snarked.

 

“I don’t see you partnering up with your girlfriend, from what Stiles tells me she’s smart.”

 

“He’d say that, he’s only been obsessed with her for years.”

 

Thea clicked her pen rapidly. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

 

“Oh really?” He asked skeptically.

 

“He thinks he wants her but there’s a ninety percent chance if they ever dated it would crash and burn. She’s not the right person for him.”

 

“You don’t know any of us.”

 

“I know that you’re going to come into money when you turn eighteen. I know Scott and Allison are head over heels in love and it makes me want to puke fairy floss. I know Stiles has been kidnapped, Danny dates jerks and Lydia’s not as stupid as she acts.”

 

“So Stilinski told you about us, big deal.”

 

“He didn’t tell me all of that. I’m perceptive and things don’t stay secret when I’m around. I want to know everything.”

 

Jackson’s eyes narrowed. “You should stay out of other people’s business.”

 

“Maybe but you’re Stiles’ friends and he’s mine so by association it’s kind of my business.”

 

“I’m not his friend. He sits at my table because McCall is dating my girlfriend’s best friend. There’s a difference.” He snapped.

 

“But I’m also Lydia’s friend and he’s my best friend so now there’s no reason for Stiles not to sit at your table.” She pointed out.

 

“Stilinski’s always going to be a geek, you won’t change things just because he’s your charity case.”

 

“You overestimate your jock status and underestimate the fact that he’s a “geek”. Remember Felicity? She can run in heels, hack into websites, count cards, keep Oliver Queen in line and I’ve heard that when people strap bombs to her she’s pretty calm about it. Your argument about Stiles being a geek is invalid.”

 

“She’s had a bomb strapped to her? What the hell kind of stuff does your family get into?”

 

“Well you know we have this itinerary. We try to level the city on Mondays, on Tuesdays we have stock meetings, on Thursdays we strap bombs to IT experts and on Wednesdays we wear pink.” Thea said sarcastically.

 

“Look I don’t really care about Stilinski or whatever you’re going to try and prove by trying to make him popular because I need to do well in this class.”

 

“Well that settles one thing.” Thea said.

 

“Which is?”

 

She pointed her pen at him. “You lie.”

 

“No I didn’t, I need to do well in this class. I might not be Lydia or Danny but I do well and in order to get into Stanford I need to keep my GPA up.”

 

“I wasn’t talking about that. You care about Stiles.”

 

“You’re delusional.” He scoffed.

 

  
“If you didn’t care you wouldn’t have a problem with the fact that you think I’m going to try and make him popular. But it bothers you so you do care but is that because you think Lydia might notice him or because Danny might notice him or is it because you’re actually afraid that _you_ might notice him?”

 

“Way off base Queen,” He snarled, “I’m straight and Lydia’s not going to look twice at him and despite Danny’s questionable taste in guys even he’s not stupid enough to go for Stilinksi.”

 

“I don’t know, Danny looks pretty chummy with Stiles over there.”

 

 

Jackson followed her gaze over to where Danny and Stiles were laughing about something. Thea grinned at the pair, watching as Danny rolled his eyes and shoved Stiles who almost fell out of his chair. Danny seemed like a genuinely nice guy, one that she really wanted to get to know because she wanted to know how someone like Jackson could have such a friend. The jock screamed entitlement and arrogance but Thea wasn’t a moron, there was clearly something underneath Jackson’s rough exterior that was worth Danny putting up with his childish ways.

 

 

“Yeah,” She smirks at Jackson, “I’m pretty sure Danny’s not going to object to spending more time with Stiles on this project. You said Danny was smart right? I’m sure he’s going to be more than happy to put in a few extra hours to make sure he gets an A.”

 

 

The look on Jackson’s face was totally worth the fact that she was probably going to fail Chemistry. You couldn’t exactly pass a group assignment when one member of the group wasn’t speaking to the other. But still, totally worth it.

 

 

* * *

 

 

“So why are we here again?”

 

 

Thea walked across the oval to the bleachers with Allison who had a smile on her face. Usually when school was over for the day she didn’t stick around because school sucked, end of. Allison had cornered her in French and told her about the Lacrosse tryouts. Well in reality what she’d really done was just turned to Thea and asked if she was going or not. Thea hadn’t had a clue as to what she was talking about and the Argent had explained what was going on. So she’d agreed because Stiles needed someone in his corner and because apparently, that’s what girlfriends did. Not that she was his girlfriend. Not that anyone would believe her when she said otherwise. It didn’t really bother her though because it helped in elevating Stiles’ status.

 

 

“We’re here to support our boyfriends.”

  
Thea rolled her eyes. “Thea is still single.”

 

“Thea is talking in third person.” Allison smiled.

  
“Thea doesn’t care.”

 

“Thea sounds like Stiles.”

 

“Thea isn’t surprised and wants to remind Allison that said boy is not said girl’s boyfriend.”

 

“Okay, whatever, we are there to support our guys.”

 

“Isn’t yours already on the team?” Thea asked her.

 

“He is and so are Jackson and Danny.”

 

“So why are you here then?”

 

“To support them. Scott likes lacrosse and he takes interest in what I do so I reciprocate. Plus I’ve finally settled down somewhere and I’ll be graduating here so it’s nice to have a chance to have school spirit and stuff.”

 

Thea watched as Stiles nearly face planted and grimaced. “He’s not going to make the team is he?”

 

“He’s already on the team but probably not first line. Stiles is okay but our team is really, really good.

 

 

Thea watched the tryouts and frowned when she realized that Stiles was on the bench and had been glued there the whole time. She pointed this out to Allison who explained to her that Stiles played all of one game last year and that this particular tryout was to determine the status of the pre-existing first line. Apparently there would be another tryout in two weeks time to assess the other possible players and that after that there would be a final try out that would determine the new first line. Thea thought it was all every complicated and excessive for a lacrosse team, especially a high school one. Weren’t high schools about their football team anyway?

 

 

“Wow, Scott’s good.” Thea commented.

 

Allison smiled. “Yeah he is, he’s actually the co-captain.”

 

“Jackson’s the other one right?”

 

“How’d you know?”

 

“He’s got this jock arrogance thing going.” Thea waved her hands around.

 

“You know he’s not so bad when he’s not being an ass.”

 

“I’ll take your word for it because I’ve yet to see the non-asshole Jackson but the jury is still out because I figure it would be mean of me to make a final verdict before Danny gets to plead his case.”

 

Allison laughed. “Yeah Danny’s good at that.”

 

“What is Jackson’s problem with Stiles anyway?”

 

“It’s a long standing rivalry, mostly over Lydia I think. Jackson and Scott aren’t much better though except I think that’s more to do with them never getting along and then Scott going from being on the bench to becoming co-captain of the team. It’s all kind of stupid really.”

 

“See where I came from it was the girls who caused all the drama,” Thea grinned, wincing when she saw Jackson tackle Scott hard. “Guys are stupid, especially if they’re willing to get hit like that.”

 

“It’s a manliness thing.”

 

“Yeah my brother is kind of like that, not the whole contact sport thing but like the general ‘I’m a man’ thing. You should listen to Felicity ramble on about his masculinity, it’s actually hilarious. She actually said ‘manhood’ once and I thought she was going to drown herself in my pool she was so red.”

 

“She seems pretty cool.”

 

“Yeah she’s kind of like my sister I suppose. With all the shit that went down over the summer it’s been insane and I haven’t actually spoken to my mother since it all happened but Felicity’s been great. She eats Ben and Jerry’s with me when I want to cry and makes sure I get a good education in all things superhero.”

 

“Stiles is totally into the whole superhero thing. Scott is too but not to the same extent.” Allison nodded.

 

“Yeah they gossiped like old biddies last night, I honestly got lost like two minutes into the conversation.”

 

“Did he really stay over?”

 

“Yeah his dad is like the Sherriff so he does a lot of crazy hours or something? I’m used to being on my own a lot too so I think we’ll probably be spending a lot of time together. Felicity goes back in a few days so he better get all his nerd fangirling out of the way by then. I mean I’m not totally clueless about marvel but my knowledge doesn’t exactly extend past the Avengers.”

 

Allison giggled. “I know what you mean sometimes I think Scott forgets I’m not a guy when he talks to me about stuff. Like I think watching lacrosse is kind of nice and go Beacon Hills but when Scott starts talking about all these foot maneuvers and tactics and the best way to defend I want to smother him with a pillow.”

 

“Guys just don’t get it. Not that I want to spend all my time talking about where I got my shoes from, I need an in between.” Thea agreed.

 

“Maybe we should make them suffer.”

 

Thea grinned. “We could always drag Scott and Stiles shopping with us as revenge.”

 

“Stiles might enjoy it.” Allison joked shyly.

 

“Nah, he’s got a straight guy’s fashion sense.”

 

“Jackson dresses pretty well.”

 

“Jackson doesn’t count. He has Danny. Anyone that has Danny is automatically a cheater.”

 

Allison laughed. “He’s a cool guy.”

 

 

Thea watched as Jackson scored a goal against said best friend. She already knew his position was guaranteed as was Scott’s and Danny’s. The guy who’d been in goals before him, a guy called Greenburg, had gotten scored against mercilessly. With the way the coach had laughed Thea had guessed he was less first line more humiliation. Not the nicest thing to do to someone but the guy seemed to be used to it which didn’t really make her feel any better.

 

Her gaze turned to Stiles who was still on the bench, bouncing his leg quickly as he chewed on his lacrosse glove. She’d noticed that Stiles had a oral fixation which was kind of adorable. It was also something she could use to her advantage. Thea turned to Allison and cocked her head to the side.

 

 

“Hey, do you think I could get Stiles to watch What Not To Wear with me?”

 

* * *

 

“So it’s safe to say I’m never going to get onto first line.” Stiles sighed putting the car into park outside Thea’s house.

 

“You are so going to get first line.”

 

“Have you seen the team?”

 

“Well you’re never going to be better than Jackson or Danny or Scott but there’s a few guys out there you could probably be better than.”

 

“You’re seriously overestimating me.”

 

“You can’t be that bad.” Thea protested.

 

“Gravity doesn’t like me.”

 

“You can’t blame gravity for walking into things.”

 

“That’s my point, I walk into stuff and fall over and I’m not that good, Thea.”

 

“This weekend we are going hard.”

 

“Okay?” He smirked.

 

Thea slapped his arm playfully. “Not like that, mind out of the gutter. I’m going to train you and by the time your tryout comes around you will be awesome.”

 

“Fine but if I don’t I get to say told you so.”

 

“If you don’t I’ll pay to get your Jeep fixed up.”

 

“Couldn’t you just pay for the magical wardrobe of mine you keep talking about?”

 

“I’m doing that anyway.” Thea waved him off.

 

 

Stiles tried to protest but she slapped a hand over his mouth and dragged him up the pavement and to her front door. She quickly scanned herself in and made a mental note to ask Felicity to put Stiles into the index. Thea watched as Stiles immediately gravitated towards his fellow comic book nerd and she almost felt bad about walking up towards her bedroom until she heard them begin debating about who would win in a fight between Batman and Iron Man. She was pretty sure they’d already discussed that the night before.

 

 

Thea pulled out her phone and hit the first number on he speed dial. It didn’t take long until the other person answered and she smiled when she heard the voice.

 

 

“Hey Speedy.”

 

“Hey Ollie.”

 

“You didn’t flip a teacher off did you? Call your homeroom teacher a whore? Cheat in a test?”

“It’s the second day! And that’s all things _you_ did. I was just wondering something.”

 

“Okay, shoot me.”

 

“Bang bang,” She joked, “But seriously, do you know anything about lacrosse?”

 

“It’s a game with sticks right? Like grass hockey with nets on the sticks?”

 

“Yeah well I have a friend who needs to be good enough to get on a lacrosse team by the tryouts in a fortnight.”

 

“I don’t really remember any of my fraternities going crazy over the sport. I think it was more slutty cheerleaders and football.”

 

“You wouldn’t even know, you didn’t last that long Ollie.”

 

“True and I’m not proud of that. Go to college Thea. College is good.”

 

Thea rolled her eyes. “Can we get back on topic?”

 

“Sure but I don’t know how I’m going to help.”

“You have to have some idea. He’s not the most athletic guy but I don’t think he’s unfit either. I’m also pretty sure I can lift more than he can.” Thea said in all seriousness.

 

“Well then you know where to start. Get him running and start him with weight training. Don’t kill him though, he needs to be able to function when the trials come around.”

“I’m not going to kill him, I’m just going to motivate him.”

 

“I’m already terrified for the poor guy.”

“I’m not that bad.” Thea defended herself.

 

“You don’t understand the concept of motivation.”

 

“You don’t understand _my_ concept of motivation.”

 

“That I can agree with, now I know Felicity won’t tell me but do I need her to stay with you longer?”

 

“No, how many secretaries are you through now?”

 

“I only had two today.”

 

“Oliver: 5, Human Resources: 0.” Thea joked.

 

“Very funny Speedy. Don’t you have homework to do?”

 

“Don’t you have a company to run?”

 

“Yes and I would but my secretaries are useless.”

 

“You mean they don’t know how to deal with the great Oliver Queen. To be fair, you’re a hard person to impress.”

 

“I have expectations and they aren’t too high.”

 

“Oliver your executive assistant is Felicity Smoak, of course you have high expectations.”

 

“She does her job well. I wouldn’t have anyone else.”

 

“You know Ollie for a smart guy you’re kind of dumb.”

 

“Oh really?” He challenged her.

 

“Yeah. She misses you too. We both do.”

 

He sighed down the phone. “I miss you both too.”

 

 

Thea said goodbye and hung up her phone. She pushed back the wave of sadness and quickly logged onto her computer. Oliver was right, she needed to get Stiles into shape. Getting him into a relationship was something that would take time, first he had to get onto first line.

 

She couldn’t help but grin at the overnight shipping offered as she checked out a handheld megaphone. Thea was going to train him and damn was it going to be fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Early Morning Wake Up Calls and Bowling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit. It's been forever and I apologise so much for that. I was gonna make it up to you all by posting an extra large chapter and then as soon as I completed it my laptop broke and I had to wait like five days to get it fixed. But my laptop was fixed today (thanks to the lovely apple genius who helped me, you're such a cute little nerd) and when I got home I decided I wanted to draft it and re-write pieces that didn't feel right.

“Stiles! Get up!”

 

 

Thea flicked the light switch, cringing as her eyes adjusted to the sudden flood of light that illuminated her best friend’s bedroom. Her best friend jerked awake and fell out of bed, groaning into the carpet.

 

 

“Thea? What the hell are you doing in my bedroom?”

 

“It’s time to start training.”

 

Stiles looked at her blearily. “What time is it?”

 

“Half past four.” She grinned happily.

 

“What the hell? How did you even get in here?”

 

“Your dad let me in when he left for the morning shift. Now get up! We have a work out to start.

 

Stiles slipped back into his bed and burrowed under his duvet. “Go away, it’s too early.

 

Thea grinned and grabbed the end of his covers, dragging them back with satisfaction as Stiles yelped. “Get changed, we’re going running.”

 

“It’s still dark outside.”

 

 

Thea watched as he stumbled around the room, falling over as he attemped to pull on a pair of ratty trackpants. She threw him a shirt and waited for him to pull on his running shoes. Stiles stumbled down the stairs behind her and only remembered to lock the front door when she reminded him that the Sheriff probably wouldn’t appreciate coming home to a robbed home.

 

It took a little bit of effort but soon Stiles was running next to her through the surrounding neighborhood. Every single breath of air she breathed in was painful and her side hurt with every inhale but she didn’t stop. Clearly Stiles wasn’t the only one who needed to get into shape. Thea was pleasantly surprised that, ignoring the occasional whine, Stiles was holding up rather well. He was almost kind of graceful when he ran, one foot in front of the other. But maybe that was just because he hadn’t tripped yet.

 

Eventually Stiles stopped, bent over at the waist and clutching at his side. She stopped next to him, sitting on the side of the road, her muscles burning. Never had she run this far, not even for gym back at her old school. Stiles gasped and swore, sweat running down his face from his hair.

 

 

“How far did we get?”

 

Thea pulled out her phone and checked. “Three miles.”

 

“Shit, is that all?” Stiles frowned.

 

“Yeah and now we have to run back.”

 

Stiles threw his head back and groaned. “You’re going to kill me, Thea. I’m not even going to get to try out for the team because I’m going to be dead. You’re going to kill me. To death.”

 

Thea rolled her eyes and threw up her hands towards him. “Help me up so we can get going.”

 

 

Thea was yanked up from her sitting position on the ground and stopped so she could fix her hair and pull it back into a neater pony tail. She checked her shoelaces and then Stiles’ because the boy was hopeless in the cutest kind of way. When they both passed inspection she kicked Stiles in the butt playfully and began running back to Stiles’ house, laughing as he chased her.

 

They both collapsed on his front porch when they finally arrived at his house. She checked her phone and stopped the timer and tracker on the app she had and proceeded to flop out onto her back next to Stiles who was already starfished on the wooden floor. She listened as their gasps turned into quiet pants and then to silence, feeling her heart go from racing a hundred miles an hour to it’s usually slow steady thuds. When her body felt like it wasn’t going to collapse underneath her she pulled herself up, helping Stiles up as she waited for him to unlock the front door.

 

 

“Umm we have a problem.”

 

Thea looked at Stiles who had wide eyes. “What?”

 

“I don’t have my keys.”

 

“Seriously? How are we going to get back in?”

 

Stiles stepped off the porch and looked up at something she couldn’t see before turning back to her. “How good are you at climbing trees?”

 

“I’m okay, why?”

 

“Well the only way in is through my bedroom window and to get to that we have to climb up the tree and jump onto the roof.”

 

“Is that safe?”

 

“Everyone comes through my bedroom window because they’re all weird and are allergic to front doors or something.”

 

Thea nodded. “Okay we can try it. I’ve personally never snuck into any bedroom window but I’m all about firsts.”

 

“What about me? Be my first?” He grinned cheekily.

 

Thea swatted him with her hand. “Start climbing, Stiles.”

 

Stiles began climbing up the tree and when he landed on the roof he looked down at her. “Is that a yes?”

 

“Has Danny told you if gay guys find you attractive yet?”

 

 

Thea began to climb up the tree, heart racing when her foot almost missed the branch it was supposed to be using as support. Eventually she was at the part of the tree that was slightly higher than the roof. She held onto the base of the tree like a lifeline as her mind began conjuring up the worst possible things that could happen to her. Like falling out of the tree. Falling off the roof. Falling _through_ the roof. Dying. Never seeing Oliver and Felicity get together. Never seeing Stiles and Jack-

 

 

“Thea c’mon!” Stiles smiled encouragingly.

 

“Stiles, this really high.”

 

“You’re afraid of heights?” His mouth open wide.

 

“I’m afraid of falling to my death!”

 

“Scott fell out of this tree once and he didn’t die.”

 

Thea let her grip slacken. “Really?”

 

“Yeah he just broke his arm in four places.”

 

“Stiles!”

 

 

Thea shrieked as she jumped off the branch and landed on the roof, grabbing Stiles for support. She followed him through the window, giggling as he tripped and fell face first into the carpet. Her entry ended up being a little more grace and she looked at the clock on his bedside table.

 

 

“Okay I’m having first shower so my hair can have longer to dry. Don’t bother about breakfast, we’ll pick something up along the way.” Thea said, grabbing the bag she had bought to Stiles’ and crossed the hallway into the bathroom.

 

 

She quickly showered, washing her hair with Stiles’ shampoo and conditioner and changed into a blue summer dress that flowed to just above her knees. Stiles passed her in the hall only in a pair of boxers and she poked him in the stomach smiling as he recoiled and protested with a yelp. Thea all but skipped down the stairs pulling on the sandals she had left inside the front door when she had greeted the Sheriff.

 

He’d been a little surprised when he had opened the front door to leave for work and saw her outside, getting ready to knock. She really hadn’t needed to say anything because he had just appraised her up and down, asked if she was the “Thea person” his son had been rambling on about the night before and told her that his son’s bedroom was upstairs on the left. Then he had left in his car and started driving to work all before Thea could say “nice to meet you”. It had all been very strange but then again, the man had contributed to half of Stiles’ genetic make up so it was to be expected.

 

Stiles’ father seemed nice enough but she knew that the man was rather like her own parents. Now that she knew about what her parents had been apart of she saw them very differently but as a child when she had known nothing they had been loving parents who just hadn’t been around because of work and whatever else was demanded of them. It was a lot like Stiles and the Sheriff, from what Stiles had told her (which to be fair hadn’t really been much at all) but the reasoning still stood.

 

“Thea where are we going for breakfast?” Stiles asked as he thundered down the stairs.

 

“You guys have Starbucks in this town right?”

 

“Is that a joke?”

 

“Is _that_ a joke.”

 

He broke out in a grin. “Yeah we have Starbucks.”

 

“Thank God,” She breathed a sigh of relief, “I was going to have to kill you if the answer was no.”

 

“It’s not like it would have been _my_ fault if Beacon Hills didn’t have Starbucks.”

 

Thea just looks at him from the passenger seat. “Drive, Stiles.”

 

“Drive, Stiles. Help save Jackson, Stiles. Get into a car accident with my mom, Stiles. Do research, Stiles. Go away, Stiles. Do this, Stiles. Jesus Christ people are so fucking pushy.”

 

“You have serious issues, oh best friend mine.”

 

“I’ve been told, tested and confirmed.” He snarks.

 

“What was that about Jackson though?”

 

Stiles coughed loudly. “Nothing. He just needed help with something.”

 

 

Stiles didn’t elaborate and they spent the rest of the trip to Starbuck’s in silence. Thea orders her usual, a ridiculously complicated order that makes the barista glare at her when she gives him the order. Stiles’ is a mint ice chocolate and Thea is almost surprised until she remembers what Stiles said the first night they met, he doesn’t mix well with coffee. She adds two toasted sandwiches and two muffins to the order and pays with a shiny credit card Oliver had given her just before she left.

 

They eat the toasted sandwiches in the car on the way to school and by the time they’re out of the car and walking into the main building Stiles is half finished his muffin. Thea nibbles on her own muffin and takes sips of her coffee, sighing as the warmth shot through her body. She follows Stiles to her locker and holds his coffee with he takes out her books before trailing after him as he made his way through the thin crowd to his own locker.

 

Chemistry was first up and Thea slumped into the chair next to Stiles’ rolling her eyes when Stiles’ head went straight onto the pile of books on the desk, his eyes shutting as he yawned. Class wouldn’t even start for twenty minutes and eventually she’d have to move so Danny could sit next to Stiles but she couldn’t care less, her body was exhausted and all she wanted was to sleep.

 

Eventually the warning bell rings and students begin to file in. Danny gave her a smile and she slipped out of the chair, resting her head against his bicep for a moment before making her way to the back of the classroom where Jackson usually sat. Jackson strutted in right before the bell for class was about to ring and Thea watched as he shot a peculiar look at Danny who just shrugged. Jackson slipped into the seat across her and gave her a weird look.

 

 

“Why do you smell like Stiles?”

 

“How do you know what Stiles smells like?”

 

 

Jackson didn’t reply and ignored her for the rest of the class. Thea didn’t understand any of it. There was a possibly Jackson knew what Stiles smelled like, a farfetched and creepy possibility but the fact that he could smell Stiles’ body wash and hair products on her was just downright weird. And since when did Jackson care?

 

 

* * *

 

 

“So I was thinking we should have coffee.”

 

 

Thea peered through an empty spot in the bookcase at Danny who was placing a few books from his hands into their rightful spot on the shelves of the bookcases. The boy sighed and ignored her, taking another handful of books from a cart next to him. Thea continued to follow him from the other side of the bookcase until they were face to face at the back of the empty library section.

 

 

Danny looked at her and rolled his eyes. “So that was random.”

 

“A little,” Thea agreed. “But nonetheless true. I think we should be friends.”

 

“You’re really blunt, you know that right?” He asked with a smile.

 

Thea grinned. “I’ve been told. But you’re nice and Stiles obviously likes you and I’m his friend and I think coffee could be the start of a glorious friendship.”

 

Danny lead her down another isle of bookcases. “Stiles doesn’t like me like that.”

 

“Oh I know,” She agreed, taking a book from his hands and placing it on the correct shelf in front of them, “But he likes spending time with you and you guys are lab partners. You were totally flirting the other day, I was watching.”

 

“Stiles doesn’t know he’s flirting, I’m just humoring him.”

 

“Jackson doesn’t know that. He wasn’t exactly happy when he saw you guys during Chemistry.”

 

“He’s just looking out for me, I don’t have the best track record with guys.”

 

“I think it’s more about the green eyed monster Jackson turns into around Stiles.”

 

“Why are you so determined for Jackson to like Stiles? It’s kind of weird.”

 

“Because the first thing Jackson said to me today was ‘Why do you smell like Stiles?’ and then he proceeded to ignore me for the whole lesson. Every time Jackson talks to me it’s about Stiles. ‘Stilinski is seriously staying the night here?’ ‘Seriously? Stilinski?’ ‘Why Stilinski?’, Thea imitated Jackson’s voice. “But seriously you should have seen the look on his face when I pointed out how chummy you and Stiles were yesterday.”

 

“Stiles and Jackson have always been at each other, they don’t get along at all. They have a hate/hate relationship going on.”

 

“Danny you’re supposed to be the smart one! Can’t you at least agree that it’s weird.”

 

Danny rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it’s weird. But it’s even weirder that you care so much. Aren’t you supposed to be helping Stiles get together with Lydia?”

 

“You know just as well as I do that Lydia and Stiles are not going to end well if it even happens.”

 

“And you think Stiles and Jackson are going to work?”

 

“I think Stiles gets under his skin and it’s only a matter of time before something happens. I can’t predict the outcome but I can tell you something will happen.”

 

“You’ve been here for four days and you’ve already picked up on that?”

 

“It’s a body language thing. Stiles isn’t straight by any means and I honestly think Jackson is over compensating.”

 

“If Jackson liked guys I would know.”

 

“He’s insecure though, so there’s a chance he hasn’t told you.”

 

“What makes you think Jackson is insecure?”

 

“Because I get it. My dad and my brother disappeared on the same day and I thought they were dead for five years. I grew up with an absent mother who remarried and plotted to tear down half a city. It’s all about appearances, no matter if you live here or in Starling City. I’m not so insecure anymore, Ollie and Felicity helped me with that, but I used to be.”

 

“You’re a strange one Thea.” Danny said after a moment.

 

“That I am. But seriously: you, me, coffee, next week?

 

“Coffee sounds good. I might even let you tell me a little bit more about your conspiracy theory.”

 

Careful Danny I might take you up on that.”

 

* * *

 

 

“Are you two okay?” Allison asked with concern, “You look like you’re about to fall asleep in your pizza.”

 

“Thea likes to wake people up at four thirty in the morning.” Stiles groaned.

 

“We got our pre-breakfast workout in and it was fun, you can’t deny that. Plus we still have after school.”

 

“Thea I can barely keep my eyes open. I fell asleep twice in History, I’m not going to be able to go again after school.”

 

“Did I hear wrong or has Stiles had sex? A girl with blonde hair sat down at the table with a dark skinned boy and another boy with curly hair.

 

“Thea Queen.” Thea introduced with a smile.

 

“Erica Reyes, this is Boyd and that over there next to Scott is Puppy.”

 

“Puppy?”

 

“My name is Isaac.” The boy grumbled, glaring at Erica.

 

Erica messed up his curls with a grin. “Whatever you say _Puppy_.”

 

“You’re on the lacrosse team, right?”

 

Isaac nodded, snapping at Erica when she attempted to mess up his hair again. “Yeah, the only person who isn’t on first line other than Stiles is Boyd.”

 

The guy in question just shrugged. “I played once and it was fun but not really my thing.”

 

“I’m working on that. Stiles is going to kick ass at the next lot of trials.”

 

“Batman? You realize this is the guy who trips over his own feet?” Erica looked at her with disbelief.

 

“Yeah but he was pretty graceful this morning.”

 

Jackson and Lydia sat down at the table and Lydia noticed the group’s open mouths. “What did we miss?”

 

“Apparently Stiles is graceful in bed and Thea’s going to get him onto first line.” Erica smirked with glee.

 

Jackson coughed. “You guys had sex?”

 

“Not that it’s anyone’s business,” Stiles huffed, “but no, we didn’t have sex. Stiles is still a virgin.”

 

“Then why was Thea waking you up at four thirty in the morning?” Scott’s head tilted to the side in a way that made Thea think of Castiel and she really needed to stop watching Supernatural.

 

“Thea decided we were going running so she got my dad to let her in when he left for his shift, woke me up at the crack of dawn and told me to get dressed because we were going running. _Running_. I don’t run for leisure. I run because something is chasing me and my life depends on it.”

 

“Something?” Thea asked, confused.

 

Stiles waved her off. “Jackson, when he gets cranky becomes something completely other than human. Totally doesn’t deserve the title of ‘someone’.”

 

“Shut up Stilinski.” Jackson growled.

 

“See? He’s practically an animal.” Stiles threw a hand up.

 

“You did pretty good though, we ran six miles.” Thea pointed out.

 

“And then we had to climb the tree and go in through my bedroom window because I locked us out.”

 

“I fell out of that tree once.” Scott rubbed his arm and grimaced.

 

“Four places, I heard.” Thea nodded, referring to the amount of places he had broken his arm.

 

Allison hugged Scott. “That must have hurt.”

 

“It did.” Scott looked at her with puppy dog eyes.

 

Stiles mimed throwing up and threw a carrot stick at his best friend. “You two are so gross. Seriously, there needs to be a rule about that.”

 

“What you jealous you can’t get a girlfriend, Stilinski?” Jackson snapped.

 

“For your information, _Jackass_ , I don’t need a girlfriend.”

 

“Oh, right, I forgot. You don’t swing that way do you? Well don’t even think about going near Danny.”

 

Stiles gawked in confusion. “What the hell does this have to do with Danny?”

 

“I’m not stupid, Stilinski. I have two eyes that work.” Jackson spat.

 

“Well congratulations Jackson,” He said sarcastically, “you’re a real boy.”

 

Thea shot a look at Danny who just sighed and looked up at the ceiling as if to say ‘Is this seriously my life?’. She turned to Stiles. “So I was thinking we should do an obstacle course this afternoon.”

 

Stiles slumped back in his seat. “You’re evil.”

 

“I’m thinking push ups, pull ups, Pilates, crunches.”

 

“Pilates?”

 

“Sorry that was for me, you’ll be doing the other stuff.”

 

“And if I refuse?” Stiles asked.

 

“I’ll tell Oliver not to bother coming down to help you train next week.”

 

“Your brother is coming down? And he’s going to help me?” Stiles’ mouth dropped open.

 

“He’s coming down next Wednesday to see the house and said he’d do a workout session with you if you wanted to,” Thea shrugged. “You don’t have to. Felicity will be down too so you can always just geek out with her.”

 

“Isn’t your brother like super ripped?”

 

“And super hot.” Danny added.

 

“Danny I thought we already agreed that was creepy?”

 

“I thought we agreed on other things.” He shot back.

 

Thea grinned evilly. “So you concur?”

 

“No but I think you make some valid points, really weird ones, but still valid.”

 

“Since when are you guys all buddy buddy?” Stiles asked, pointing between them.

 

Thea shrugged. “We have some common ground.”

 

“In four days?”

 

“You and Jackson mostly. I refuse to let my brother be any kind of common ground.”

 

“He’s attractive, you have to admit that Thea.” Danny smirked.

 

“No I don’t, that would be like making Stiles admit Scott is attractive.”

 

Stiles wrinkled his nose. “Yeah that’s kind of weird, dude.”

 

Scott rolled his eyes. “You are weird.”

 

“You know it.” Stiles fist bumped him.

 

“Not that that wasn’t cute or anything but it’s Thursday and we don’t have plans.” Lydia butted in.

 

“There’s ice skating.” Scott suggested.

 

“Uh no.” Lydia rejected.

 

“That new movie came out.” Danny tapped away at his phone. “There’s a screening at seven.”

 

“We’re going bowling,” Lydia decided. “Jackson and I, Thea and Stiles, Allison and Scott. Danny can you get a date?”

 

“You guys aren’t coming?” Thea asked Erica and the boys next to her.

 

Erica shook her head. “We have training to do this afternoon.”

 

“What kind of training?”

 

“Self defense, private tutor guy.” Boyd answered quickly.

 

Danny’s phone went off and he grinned. “Okay, I have a date.”

 

“It’s not Jake is it?” Stiles grimaced. “That dude is not good enough for you.”

 

“Not that your opinion is going to change who I date, Stiles, but I’m actually going with Ryan.” Danny put his phone away.

 

“The guy from the Jungle?”

 

“Yeah I met him a month ago.”

 

“Ginger told me about him. He’s okay but he better not hurt you.”

 

Jackson snorted. “And what are you going to do to him Stilinski? Kill him? Beat him up?”

 

“No I’m just going to take it up with Ginger and completely ruin his love life here in Beacon Hills. The Jungle is the biggest gay bar in the surrounding three towns and when you get blacklisted by the drag queens you can kiss your sex life goodbye.”

 

Danny shook his head at his lab partner. “You’re kind of evil sometimes.”

 

Stiles had a proud smile on his face. “I know right?”

 

* * *

 

“Oh my God I can’t believe we are going bowling with Lydia Martin.” Stiles rummaged through his wardrobe.

 

Thea rolled her eyes from where she was lying on his bed. “We’re also going with Danny, Ryan, Scott, Allison and Jackson.”

 

Stiles waved her off. “But I could impress her tonight.”

 

“Can you even bowl?”

 

“Yes! No. Maybe?”

 

 

Thea sighed and watched as her best friend threw things over his shoulder, grumbling when the occasional item of clothing hit her. Everything in his wardrobe was horrible and she was going to have to rectify that as soon as possible. Quicker than as soon as possible.

 

 

“So what is the big deal about bowling?”

 

“Well when Allison first came to our school she and Lydia became friends and I guess her first date with Scott was at bowling with Lydia and Jackson. It’s kind of like the thing couples do at our school. Or Lydia does anyway.”

 

“So she thinks we’re a couple?”

 

“Maybe? I don’t know. But I guess it’s a way for you two to get to know each other.”

 

“I can’t wait.” Thea said sarcastically.

 

“She’s not that bad,” Stiles defended. “You should give her a chance.”

 

“And what if I don’t like her?”

 

“Then you don’t like her. But can you at least try?”

 

Thea sighed. “Fine, but you have to let me choose what you’re wearing tonight because right now you look ridiculous.”

 

 

Stiles gestured wordlessly to his closet and she pulled herself off the bed and began to look through it. How many ironic shirts could someone have? Even Felicity didn’t have as many superhero shirts as Stiles did and it was _Felicity_. Thea was pleasantly surprised when she found a pair of jeans in the back of his cupboard that didn’t seem to be as baggy as the rest. She threw them at Stiles and told him to put them on, ignoring his protests at getting changed in the same room as her. It wasn’t like she was going to look anyway.

 

 

“I seriously can’t walk in these jeans. There is a reason why I never wear them. They got banished to the back of my cupboard because they stop the blood flow in my legs!” Stiles complained as he struggled to pull them on.

 

Thea looked at him appraisingly when he was done. “You look good. Keep them on.”

 

“Thea, I can’t feel my toes.”

 

“Don’t be a baby Stiles.”

 

Stiles shuffled around awkwardly. “You realize that in order for me to bowl I have to be able to bend my legs?”

 

“Well you do some squats while I find you a shirt. It’ll do wonders for your legs and butt. If anything Danny will approve.”

 

“Danny doesn’t like me like that. He doesn’t just tolerate me anymore so that’s nice but he doesn’t like me.”

 

“You know that you can flirt with people right? Just for fun. It doesn’t have to mean anything.”

 

“Danny was flirting with me?”

 

“Yesterday,” Thea nodded and turned back to the closet. “He knows you don’t mean anything by it. Just don’t flirt with him tonight in front of his date, okay?”

 

“Thea, I don’t even now how to flirt with people.”

 

Thea plucked a black band tee out and handed it to Stiles. “Put that on.”

 

 

She watched as Stiles tried to put the shirt on, nodding when he succeeded. The shirt wasn’t baggy but it wasn’t tight, it actually looked like it fit him. For whatever reason Stiles didn’t like clothes that fit him. It was weird and Thea didn’t understand it because Stiles wasn’t unattractive. His body was kind of lanky but he didn’t have any fat on him and his muscle was lean. It honestly probably wouldn’t take long for him to get a little bulk on his frame, even less time if Ollie put him through a boot camp.

 

 

Stiles pulled at the shirt uncomfortably. “It’s too tight.”

 

“No, it fits.” She corrected.

 

“Can’t I wear something over it?”

 

“If you say plaid I will pinch you Stiles.”

 

“But it’s comfy.” He whined.

 

“Lydia doesn’t care about comfy. You think she wears those heels to school because they make her feet feel nice?”

 

“What are you going to wear then?” He challenged, following her out of the house for the second time that day.

 

Thea climbed into the Jeep and waited for him to get settled into the drivers seat. “Well if you’d start driving we can get to my house so I can show you.”

 

 

The drive was a quick one and Thea sang along to the radio with Stiles, ignoring the looks the mother in the minivan gave them at a set of lights. It wasn’t until halfway through a Maroon 5 song that Stiles turned down the radio and gave her an inquisitive look.

 

 

“How did you even get to my house thing morning? You don’t have a car.”

 

“Felicity dropped me down the street.”

 

“And she just agreed to that? To drop you over at four in the morning?”

 

“Actually I got to your house at like four twenty five but I promised to tell her embarrassing stories about my brother so she agreed.”

 

“Isn’t he going to be mad at you?”

 

“Maybe for an hour or so. Ollie and I don’t really do mad at each other, not after everything that has happened.”

 

“It must be nice.”

 

“What?”

 

“Having a sibling. Danny and Boyd are the only ones out of the whole group that have siblings.”

 

Thea looked out the window of the Jeep for a moment before answering. “It’s hard. Having a sibling is like having another part of you that you can’t control. And they argue with you and you don’t always see eye to eye with them but you love them anyway. When they get hurt you feel it too and sometimes you hate them and you wish they never existed but then you remember why you love them and then you feel horrible for ever wanting them dead. I spent five years without Oliver and I thought he was gone forever. It was kind of like part of my soul was dead. I love him so much and it’s hard because he’s such a different person but he’s so good, Stiles. He is a good man and part of me is glad that something good came out of those five fucked up years.”

 

“It sounds kind of terrifying, having a sibling.”

 

“It is,” She answered. “But in the best way.”

 

 

They didn’t speak again until they were upstairs in Thea’s bedroom, Stiles siting on her bed with his legs dangling off the edge. She rummaged through her closet coming up with a pair of her own skinny jeans, a flowy patterned top and a blue blazer. In the bathroom she threw on the outfit making sure that she looked fine without the jacket because it was likely she would have to take it off in order to actually bowl. She pulled her hair out of its bun and let her brown hair fall down in the messy waves it had accumulated while being up during the day. Make up went of next and soon she was slipping a hair tie and some bobby pins into the pocket of her jacket and sliding back into her room.

 

 

“You look nice.”

 

“Thanks, Stiles.”

 

“I think you pull the jeans off better than I do.”

 

“If you don’t like them why do you own them?” She slipped on her ballet flats.

 

“Everyone was into them and it was all the craze so Scott and I got a pair each because we thought it would make us cool but then I realized how horrible they are. It’s like a new brand of torture the government hasn’t banned.”

 

“They’re only tight because you haven’t worn them in. Once you start moving around you’ll get used to it and they’ll loosen up a bit.”

 

 

Thea picked a pair of socks from her dresser and threw them into a handbag along with her phone and wallet. They both said goodbye to Felicity, Stiles hugging her when he realized he wouldn’t see the IT expert for a whole week. The whole scene was adorable to Thea; the pair had bonded quickly over their shared nerdiness.

 

 

It wasn’t until they were in the car park of the bowling alley that she asked him the question she should have asked when they were at his house. “You have socks right?”

 

“Yeah, I’ve got a spare set in my gym bag.”

 

“They’re clean right?”

 

“I’ll have you know that I do most the house work in my house. I cook and clean and do the washing.”

 

“So you’re a regular old Cinderella? That’s not a yes, by the way.”

 

“Yes, Thea, they are clean.”

 

“Great, hey is that Jackson’s car?”

 

Stiles looked through the back of the car. “Yeah that’s Jackass’ car.”

 

“Careful Stiles, people might think you hate him.” She teased.

 

“I do.” He huffed.

 

Thea grinned. “But hating someone means you waste so much energy on them. It’s easier to not care at all.”

 

“Have you tried to ignore Jackson? It’s kind of impossible.”

 

 

Thea jumped in her seat when Allison knocked on her window and waved at her with a smile. Thea smiled back and shooed her with a hand gesture so she could get out of the car without hitting her with the door. She liked Allison, at least what she knew of her anyway.

 

 

“Allison,” Thea sang happily, “I need to ask you something and its super important you tell me the truth.”

 

“Okay?” The girl said uncertainly.

 

“How good is Stiles at bowling?”

 

Allison hesitated. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him bowl.”

 

“Really?”

 

“It’s more of a couple thing and Stiles has always been single.”

 

“Yeah I’m working on changing that.”

 

“You could just date him?” Scott said hopefully.

 

Stiles snorted. “Dude I’ve already been friend zoned.”

 

“Already? Do we need to have an Xbox night? I can bring pizza and stuff.”

 

“Scott you’re acting like Thea and I broke up. I found out when she tried to wake me up yesterday and kind of all but fell on top of me and there was nothing. Like nada. So I kind of friend zoned myself the same time she did.”

 

Scott slung an arm around Stiles’ shoulders. “That’s harsh man, sorry.”

 

Thea rolled her eyes at Allison. “Boys.”

 

 

Another car pulled into the parking lot and Danny got out with another boy that Thea assumed was Ryan. She watched as Stiles walked up to them and slung an arm around Danny’s shoulders and said something to the blonde while Danny hid his head in his hands. She grinned to Allison and ran up to the boys, greeting Danny and his date before pulling Stiles to the front door by the hand.

 

 

“What did you say to him?” She hissed.

 

“Just that I knew Ginger and if he hurt Danny I’d make sure he got sexiled by everyone in a three town radius.”

 

Thea groaned. “Danny’s going to kill you if that guy never sees him again.”

 

“Better than Danny getting hurt.”

 

“Idiot he’s going to be hurt either way, but one of the options includes Jackson killing _you_.”

 

Stiles waved her off. “He always wants to kill me.”

 

“I seriously doubt that.”

 

“Didn’t you see him at lunch?”

 

“That was him being mad about you and Danny.”

 

“Which makes like zero sense. Hey, you’re his lab partner, can you talk to him about that for me?”

 

Thea sighed and paid the man at the counter for herself and Stiles despite his protest before turning to her friend. “He’s not exactly talking to me.”

 

“How does that even work? It’s a joint project.”

 

“I know that’s why I think we should all have a study date or something so I can at least do my half and hopefully Danny can give Jackson a kick up the ass.”

 

“I’m sure Danny will be okay with that, he seems to like you. You guys have common ground or whatever.” Stiles used air quotes around ‘common ground’.

 

Thea threw Stiles’ bowling shoes at him and stuck her tongue out at him in the process. “Don’t be so childish.”

 

Stiles threw his hands up and turned around to find their friends. “Did you guys see that? She’s such a hypocrite!”

 

“Whatever Stilinski.” Jackson pushed past them and walked over to an empty lane, Lydia behind him.

 

Thea followed them, dragging Stiles behind her by the arm. Danny, Ryan, Allison and Scott settled into the empty lane next to them and Stiles chatted to Scott animatedly while Jackson and Danny put everyone’s names into the computer system connected to the screens above their lanes. Thea poked Jackson in the arm and crossed her arms over her chest when he tried to put Stiles under Stilinski. The jock huffed and changed it to Stiles and Thea grinned at the almost pained look on his face.

 

Jackson bowled first getting a perfect strike. The jock kissed Lydia in celebration and Thea could feel Stiles squirming next to her. She put a hand on his leg and squeezed the denim-clad flesh before letting go quickly. Lydia bowled, smiling brilliantly when she got a spare. Thea watched in the lane next to them as Ryan tried to impress Danny while Stiles bowled, her best friend completely ruining his first attempt. Jackson snickered next to her and she ignored him, cheering when Stiles eventually knocked over three pins. He blushed at her and she patted him on the arm before picked up her own bowling ball. She almost dropped it and grinned sheepishly at Allison who waved at her encouragingly.

 

Thea walked up to the line and tried to mimic Scott who was bowling smoothly like he had done it many times before. He probably had if this is what they all did for date night. She let the ball go and giggled hysterically when the ball ended up in the gutter. Bowling had never been her strong suit but at least it meant Stiles wasn’t the only one who sucked.

 

The game continued and quickly turned into a contest between Stiles and Thea over who was the worst bowler. She shifted in her seat when Lydia sat down in Stiles’ seat while he attempted to bowl.

 

 

“So what do you think of Beacon Hills so far? It’s a lot different to Starling City.” The strawberry blonde asked.

 

“The people here are a lot nicer but it’s weird being in a town that closes down at five in the afternoon. The clubs aren’t as nice from what I’ve been told but I might just be impartial to Verdant.”

 

“Maybe,” Lydia grimaced when Stiles almost fell on his ass. “He’s kind of a dork isn’t he?”

 

“He’s a nice person.” Thea defended.

 

Lydia’s nose scrunched up. “Maybe but you know that doesn’t go far in the social ladder.”

 

“You could change that.”

 

“Thea! Your turn.” Stiles slid over to her with a grin.

 

Thea jumped up out of her seat. “Take my seat, talk to Lydia over science or whatever you smart people talk about.”

 

 

Stiles grinned at her manically and when she walked over to pick up her bowling ball she felt Jackson walk up behind her. “What are you doing?”

 

Jackson’s arms went around her. “Thought you might want some help with your form.”

 

Thea twisted a little to look at him. “Doing this won’t make anyone jealous.”

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

 

Thea let him help anyway, confused as to what the hell Jackson’s game was. Every time he’d kissed Lydia so far tonight he had been looking at her and Stiles. She knew it was about making Stiles hurt but it was kind of useless, Stiles was already painfully aware that Jackson was dating Lydia. This little thing where Jackson ‘helped’ her with her form was just another part of his game but who was this about? She and Stiles weren’t actually dating and making Lydia jealous seemed pointless.

 

Despite Jackson’s help Thea only knocked down three pins and she tore herself away from him so she could give Stiles a high five. Jackson bowled a spare and Thea watched as Lydia gave him a sharp look before getting up to bowl her set. Thea walked over to the next lane and cheered with Allison as Danny scored a strike.

 

 

“This is fun.” She grinned.

 

Allison looked at her with a wide smile. “You and Stiles are doing great.”

 

Thea snorted. “We’re doing horrible. It’s kind of funny how bad we are at this.”

 

“You seem to be having fun.”

 

“I am,” She admitted, “it’s nice not having to be the best. Jackson has that locked down. Takes the pressure off things.”

 

“I know what you mean, Scott and Danny are competitive but it’s like natural competitiveness on steroids when Jackson and Scott compete. It’s nice being able to enjoy this without all the machoness.”

 

“Thea! It’s your turn.” Stiles called.

 

“Well the gutters call my name, good luck Allison.” Thea smiled.

 

 

Thea managed to knock down eight pins with an excited whoop. Stiles picked her up and spun her around before letting her down with a laugh as she hit him on the arm. She curled up next to him and watched as Jackson and Lydia tried to act like a happy couple. They weren’t exactly failing but they weren’t succeeding. Lydia was acting frosty and Jackson was too preoccupied with whatever was going on in his own head to act like a proper doting boyfriend.

 

“Stiles your turn.” Thea grinned.

 

“Wish me luck.”

 

 

Thea gave him an exaggerated kiss on the cheek and smirked when he blushed bright red. She slid into the seat next to Lydia.

 

 

“So what’s going on between you and Stiles? I know you’re not actually going out but you act like more than friends.”

 

“Stiles and I aren’t dating but that’s mainly because of me. He’s a good guy, and he’s really intelligent  but I’m not ready for anything yet. I was kind of in a long-term relationship before I came to Beacon Hills and I’m no where near ready to get back on that horse.”

 

“Was he hot?” Lydia asked.

 

“Yeah, he was hot. He wasn’t perfect but I liked him. Roy lives in the Glades and we managed to get through the whole destruction of the Glades but we couldn’t survive me moving here. I miss him but at the same time I’m glad it ended on a good note. I don’t regret anything.”

 

“You’re really lucky you know,” Lydia said in a soft voice, almost looking human. “To have a good relationship like that.”

 

“Don’t you?” Thea asked.

 

Lydia laughed. “You’d think so considering what we’ve been through. Sometimes I think we do and other times he’s doing what he pulled earlier with you.”

 

“I don’t like him like that.”

 

“I know you don’t. You know how it works anyway. Jackson and I will date until the end of high school and then we’ll go off to college and be whoever we are meant to be.”

 

 

Thea shuddered at the detachedness of it all, she couldn’t imagine being like that, not after her relationship with Roy. She couldn’t see herself dating someone for the status and convenience of it. Not when you could be with someone you truly liked, damn the consequences. Roy had shown her that. But that was the difference between her and Lydia; the people at her old school had liked her and accepted that she was going out with a former criminal from the Glades. Lydia didn’t have that at BHHS, the students admired her but they didn’t love her and she treated her status as Queen Bee as something that could be taken away if she wasn’t seen as anything but perfect.

 

 

“It’s only high school.”

 

Lydia nodded. “But right now it’s what matters.”

 

Stiles walked up to her with a spring in his step. “I got a nine!”

 

Thea jumped up and hugged him. “I think that’s a new record.”

 

 

 

Thea stepped up to the line again, bowling with a seriousness that had Allison, Stiles and Scott laughing from where they were watching together. She stuck her tongue out at them and let the ball go, throwing her hands up with a flourish and taking a bow when the ball tipped into the gutter. Jackson handed her another ball and she nodded in thanks before knocking down three pins on her second go.

 

The screen lit up telling them they had played all the rounds and Jackson tallied up the scores, smirking triumphantly when the screen announced he was the winner. Thea rolled her eyes at the smug look on Jackson’s face; the only person he had actually been competing against was Lydia. She and Stiles had been so horrible they’d been out of the race by the fourth round.

 

Thea wandered over to the next lane to see the scores, Scott winning just ahead of Danny who beat Allison and Ryan by a fair bit. Ryan looked embarrassed and blushed when Danny took his hand and smiled at him.

 

 

“You guys did well.” Thea pointed at the scoreboard.

 

“How did you and Stiles do?” Scott asked.

 

“I think we might have got to like fifty? If we were lucky.”

 

Scott smiled fondly. “Yeah Stiles has never been good at bowling.”

 

“He just needs someone to teach him.” Thea shrugged.

 

“We should do this again.” Allison slipped her hand into Scott’s.

 

“Do what again?” Stiles bounded up to them.

 

“Show everyone how awesome we are at bowling.”

 

“I know right!”

 

Jackson snorted as he and Lydia made their way over. “You sucked.”

 

Stiles shrugged. “At least I had fun.”

 

“I did have fun. I won.” He countered.

 

“Yeah but at least I don’t have to win to be happy.”

 

“Maybe that’s because you’re such a loser that you’re used to coming last.”

 

“Well if it bothers you so much why don’t you actually teach us mere mortals instead of being a giant jerk with a tree up his ass.” Stiles snapped.

 

Thea pulled Stiles back. “Stiles please don’t end this night with a fight, it’s been really fun so far.”

 

“He’s the one being a jerk.”

 

“But you should try being the bigger person.”

 

“He wishes he was the bigger person.” Jackson scoffed.

 

“God you are such a dick.”

 

“At least I use mine.”

 

 

Scott had to help Thea hold Stiles back from lunging at Jackson who just smirked. Lydia looked at her nails almost bored by the whole commotion and Thea watched Danny just shake his head at his best friend. Allison looked around nervously at the people who were watching them.

 

 

“How about we take this outside before they kick us out? I really like bowling here.” Allison suggested.

 

 

Stiles nodded curtly and pulled away from his friends and Thea followed him up to the front desk where they gave back their shoes. Thea rested her head on Stiles’ back, her blazer hanging over her arm. The warmth was nice and she burrowed into it.

 

 

“Stiles, I’m tired.”

 

“You want a piggy back to the car?” He asked.

 

“You gonna drop me?”

 

“No promises.”

 

 

Thea waited until he put his shoes back on and she jumped onto his back, giggling when he reached around to support her weight with his hands under her butt. He walked over near the entrance and pretended to drop her when Allison and Scott started to reach them. She shrieked and let go of him long enough flick his ear in retaliation for the sudden scare.

 

 

“I wish I wasn’t wearing a dress.” Allison admitted.

 

“Skinny jeans all the way,” Thea nodded hopping off Stiles’ back, “I mean have you seen Stiles’ butt.”

 

Allison made a show of looking to Scott’s annoyance. “It _is_ pretty nice.”

 

Stiles blushed. “I feel like they’re painted on.”

 

“I’ve never seen you wear them before.” Danny said with an appreciative smile. “But you’re right, they do look like they’re painted on.”

 

“Thea said I should do squats.” He grimaced.

 

“They would make your ass look really good.” She sang in his ear, slinging an arm over his shoulders.

 

“I’m sure his butt is fine.” Scott coughed looking like the whole conversation was causing him physical pain.

 

“What about you Ryan?” Thea asked. “What’s your opinion on Stiles’ ass?”

 

“It’s fine I guess, I haven’t really looked.” The tanned boy shrugged.

 

“Come on! I need data collection, Allison and I agree his ass is a nice one but we need another guy to even out the test subjects.”

 

“Doesn’t Scott’s opinion count?”

 

“Scott is like his brother and that makes it incest so no, it doesn’t count.” Thea shook her head.

 

Danny squeezed Ryan’s hand. “It’s Stiles, it’s not weird if you think he has a nice butt.”

 

“You’re just saying that because you don’t want to answer my question. I’m onto you Danny.” Stiles accused.

 

“You got me, that’s my evil, nefarious plan.” Danny grinned.

 

Stiles got distracted by the choice of word. “Nefarious? I’m impressed.”

 

Ryan coughed. “Okay so it’s kind of nice? Can we never talk about this again?”

 

Thea grinned. “See Stiles? Gay guys totally like your ass. So do straight girls. You got this locked down. Do a couple of squats in the morning and you’ll have all the hotties coming to your yard.”

 

Jackson laughed. “Stiles? He wishes.”

 

Thea leaned into Stiles, unlocking her knees so he had to catch her before she hit the ground. “Stiles, I’m tired. Take me home?”

 

Stiles forgot about his plans to jump the arrogant jerk and picked Thea up reverse piggyback style. “Of course my Queen.”

 

Thea felt the phone in her back pocket buzz and snuggled into his chest further. “Can you get that for me?”

 

 

Stiles shifted her slightly as he picked the phone out of her pocket and Thea grinned at Jackson who was giving her a look that she couldn’t quite name. It was something been annoyance and anger. Stiles flipped through her phone and pulled back so he could look at her properly.

 

 

“Thea?” Why did Felicity just send you a text about some guy showing up at the house with a package for you? Something about a megaphone?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OMG SOME OF MY FICS HAVE BEEN RECCED ON TUMBLR! I love you all and thanks to those who are sharing my work through social media. 
> 
> If you guys want to prompt me this is my tumblr: http://skyewatsonfics.tumblr.com


	4. Boot camp, Starbucks and Chemistry

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter is close to seven weeks late. Shit. Honestly a lot has gone on since I last updated. My laptop broke again, my grandparents are sick, my aunt's health is detoriating because of the long term affected of the brain damage she sustained as a child. I'm commuting between uni and home for a week at a time and my parents are going through the nasty part of their separation. I'm also tutoring multiple people in high school and university respectively. I also had to scramble in order to pass my own uni classes. Life got in the way and I'm so very sorry about this. I just couldn't write this chapter and with life snowballing it just make writing harder until I shoved it into a corner and marathoned The L Word until the urge to cry my eyes out stopped. I'm never going to be happy with this chapter but I hope you all like it and I feel like if I don't post this I won't be able to push through onto the next chapter. I'm drawing up plans for the next few chapters and barring at more life insanity I will be updating within the next week or two. If something goes wrong I'll put up a notice on my tumblr skyewatsonfics so if you want to anon me and be like "where the hell are you?" feel free.

“Move it, move it, move it!”

 

 

Thea pulled the megaphone away from her mouth and smiled deviously when Stiles threw her a filthy look as he started yet another lap of high knees. They were only ninety minutes into her Saturday boot camp and Stiles looked like he was torn between throwing up and giving up. It was wonderful and Thea was loving every minute of it.

 

 

“Are you kidding me, Stiles? I can run faster in four inch heels!”

 

Stiles barely stopped himself from tripping. “We’ve been doing this for _hours_ , Thea!”

 

“We’re at the hour and a half mark silly. This is just the beginning. _Move._ ”

 

 

Thea climbed up and down the bleachers, occasionally stopping so she could bark out commands through her shiny pink megaphone. It was beautiful and worked like a charm, worth every penny she spent for the shipping costs. She laughed when Stiles yelled out the occasional witty comeback or ridiculous promise of retribution.

 

She put Stiles through his paces with a carefully planned workout (because Queens did _not_ go into battle without a plan of attack, thank you very much). Push ups, sit-ups, squats, high knees, target practice and weight training. Thea didn’t know that much about lacrosse, she’d seen the first try out and did a little bit of research on the internet but she knew that to really improve his skills he would need to practice against other people. Until she could find someone she’d just stick to endurance and strength training.

 

It was actually surprising how far Stiles had come in such a short period of time. He could handle their six mile morning run without feeling the need to be hospitalized which was far better than Thea handled it (like she needed to be in a medically induced coma). The amount of push ups and sit ups had grown in his reps and Stiles had taken to piggybacking Thea everywhere as a way to work on his strength without having to go to the school gym (which still terrified him). His reluctance had curbed too but Thea was sure that had more to do with the incentive of getting onto first line and impressing Lydia than it did with a sudden change in Stiles’ opinion of exercise.

 

 

Thea looked down at her clipboard. “Sit ups, high knees, push ups, obstacle course…”

 

“Get him to do suicide runs.”

 

Thea whipped around to see Jackson smirking, arms crossed over his chest. “What?”

 

“Suicide runs, he’ll hate it.”

 

Thea held up her megaphone. “Change it up! Suicide runs.”

 

Stiles whipped around and squawked. “What?”

 

“Come on Stiles! I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”

 

 

Thea smiled sweetly at her best friend who glared back at her. She watched as Stiles flipped her off and stared at Jackson for a drawn out moment before throwing himself into suicide runs with unexpected enthusiasm. Thea sat down on one of the benches and patted the empty spot next to her. She was surprised when Jackson actually took up the invitation and planted his ass down next to her.

 

 

“So what brings you here?”

 

“Danny saw your post on Facebook and for some stupid reason he wants Stilinski on first line so he’s here to help him with target practice. I’m supposed to be making sure he’s good enough for first line since I’m captain and everything.”

 

“Co-captain.” Thea corrected.

 

Jackson rolled his eyes. “McCall only has that title because he’s on something. He went from being asthma boy to first line lacrosse player. That doesn’t just happen over night without there being something else involved.”

 

“How do you know Scott didn’t just practice over summer?”

 

“With who? Look at him.” Jackson tilted his head towards Stiles who looked about to puke.

 

“Okay so you have a point but Stiles could surprise you.”

 

“You like saying that to me.”

 

“That’s because your head is so far up your own ass you can’t see that people don’t fit into neat little boxes. You prefer the attractive, pretentious kind of people in your social group. Stiles doesn’t fit into that but he’d be more worth it. Given the right clothes he could be awesome _and_ well dressed.”

 

“I seriously think you don’t understand who Stiles is. You’ve known him for a week. He’s not as great as you think he is.”

 

“Oh I’m well aware _Stiles_ isn’t perfect. He looks out for himself and what’s in his best interests. He’s obsessed with someone who will never give him what he wants and he can be a jerk when he wants to be. No one’s perfect and lets be realistic Jackson, everyone our age is like that. We look out for ourselves and our best interests because that’s how the human race has survived for so long.”

 

 

Jackson didn’t reply and they sat in silence. Thea couldn’t help but smile when Stiles grinned widely at Danny who was wearing his goalie gear. She liked Danny; she needed to know more about him. It wasn’t clear yet whether or not he was going to be an active participant in her schemes or if he’d be a somewhat reluctant ally but either way it didn’t matter because he was worth a million dollars in information and already knew her intentions so she didn’t have to veil her questions.

 

Stiles cheered happily when he scored against Danny and Thea chuckled happily. There was half a chance Danny was going easy on her friend but either way she liked that her friend was in such high spirits.

 

 

“You know there could be worse people.”

 

Jackson turned to her with a confused look on his face. “What?”

 

“Stiles. Danny could date worse people. From what I hear he has.”

 

“Stilinski and Danny are never happening.”

 

“Why? Because you command it, oh heavenly co-captain?” Thea teased.

 

“Because they aren’t right for each other.”

 

“Really? Because I think they both have a lot in common. They both like guys,” Thea ticked off her forefinger, “they’re partners in Chemistry, they smile and laugh a lot around each other, they both find each other attractive, they have the same group of friends and they would just be super cute together.”

 

“If you think he’s so great why don’t you date him?” Jackson demanded.

 

“I just got out of a long term relationship, not really into dating right now but if he didn’t like someone else and I had to move on to anyone else at this school I’d choose him. But I have a question for you.”

 

“And what would that be Queen?”

 

“What if, hypothetically, Stiles made Danny happy?”

 

“That’s never going to happen.”

 

 

Thea rolled her eyes and stepped down from the bleachers away from Jackson. She wasn’t sure how long it would take to break Jackson but she could see the chips falling away from his armor. Thea wasn’t really even sure if there was something concrete there, all she was doing was reading in between the lines. Jackson liked to act like he hated Stiles, and maybe he did, but Thea could tell Stiles got under his skin. Maybe it was because Jackson was somewhat strangely attracted to him or maybe it was just because Stiles had managed to get on Jackson’s shit list permanently. Either way all she could really do is nudge the dominos and see how they would fall.

 

Stiles was sweaty and disgusting, Danny less so but that’s because he hadn’t put in a ninety minute work out before he’d come to help Stiles with his scoring. Both were grinning ear to ear and Thea felt herself fall in love with Danny’s dimples. They were adorable and she didn’t blame Stiles for staring at them.

 

 

“I think you’ve really improved, Stiles.” Thea grinned.

 

“I better have! That was horrible.” Stiles huffed, dropping down onto the grass boneless.

 

Thea sat down next to him and dodged a sweaty arm he swung her way. “You know we should all hang out today. We have the checkpoint for that Chemistry project due in a few weeks and I have no idea what we’re even doing in class. Jackson isn’t exactly the most communicative partner and I’d like a good grade in this class.”

 

Danny smiled. “I’ll talk to Jacks about that, he can get cranky sometimes but I know he needs a good grade too. Stiles and I are pretty good at chemistry, we could all work on it today if you wanted to?”

 

“That would be great! Stiles _did_ promise to tutor me in Chemistry but so far all he’s educated me on is the history of the Marvel universe like that’s meant to mean something to me.”

 

“Thea!” Stiles looked scandalous. “Iron Man, The Avengers, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Spiderman, Black Widow, The X-Men, Hawkeye…. Marvel is beautiful and God lives in the form of Joss Whedon.”

 

“You’re such a geek.” Thea pushed his shoulder jokingly.

 

 

Before she could react Stiles rolled over and pinned her down, lazily lying on top of her. She squirmed underneath him and cringed as his sweat and damp clothes came into contact with her body. Danny chuckled as Thea tried to get Stiles off her, calling him names Felicity would probably not approve of. Eventually she gave up, relaxing her muscles and sighing dramatically.

 

 

“You’re such a fatty, Stiles.”

 

“Are you kidding me? I’m 147 pounds.”

 

“And I’m like 110 after I’ve been thrown into a pool in my entire winter wardrobe collection!”

 

“It’s not that bad.”

 

“Dannnnnnny,” Thea whined pleadingly, “help?”

 

“I don’t know you guys look kind of comfy there.”

 

“You name the concert you want to go to and I’ll take you, backstage VIP passes and everything.” Thea promised.

 

Danny rolled his eyes and sighed, “Fine but if you don’t keep your word I know where you live.”

 

 

Danny grabbed Stiles and yanked him up by the forearm and Thea giggled when Stiles yelped and stumbled, falling forward into Danny’s chest. Danny, ever the gentleman, just up righted Stiles properly and Thea jumped up off the grass, making faces at the sweat on her skin and her now ruined clothes. She folded her arms over her chest and glared at her new best friend.

 

“We need to go back to your house and shower. This is gross.” Thea grimaced.

 

“You can come with us?” Stiles offered to Danny. “It won’t take long and you’ve already been in my house anyway.”

 

“Will Miguel be making an appearance?” Danny joked.

 

Stiles blushed red. “No.”

 

“Miguel?” Thea asked, intrigued.

 

“A friend.”

 

“His ‘cousin’.” Danny grinned, air quotes in full use.

 

“Ewww, I thought that kind of stuff only happened in Alabama?”

 

Stiles choked as Danny laughed. “I had a friend over and I thought I could get Danny to help me with something and bribe him with my friend. Danny asked who the guy was and I wasn’t technically supposed to have him in my house or my room because he was running from the police so I told Danny he was my cousin Miguel.”

 

“He was a fugitive? Running from the cops?”

 

“That depends on your definition-”

 

Thea raised a perfect eyebrow. “Running as in evading custody and the cops as in your father and his police force?”

 

Stiles scratched the back of his neck. “Okay yeah he was running from the police but he didn’t do anything wrong. That time. He’s actually a nice guy. Kind of. He’s a good guy anyway. Most of the time. Well-”

 

“How about you tell me the story when we’re both really drunk because I feel like an intoxicated you wouldn’t be as confusing as you are being right now. You’re totally evasive, you know that right?”

 

“Depends on your definition of evasive.”

 

Thea rolled her eyes and pushed him towards the equipment scattered across the field. “How about we clean up this field, go back to your house and shower and then spend some time with Danny and Jackson.”

 

“Well I mean- wait, that wasn’t a question was it?”

 

“Nope.”

 

 

Thea pushed Stiles towards the equipment once more and joined Danny in checking out his ass when their friend bent down to pick up the small cones strewn out on the grass. She shot a grin at Danny who rolled his eyes and set about packing away his own lacrosse gear. It was such a shame that all the cute boys weren’t into her, or her specific gender. Of course there was always Jackson but then that would mean _Jackson._ Even if she wanted a hook up with the hot jock, which she didn’t, she was too committed to pushing him towards Stiles and not stupid enough to openly challenge Lydia. Jackson wasn’t worth _that_ drama.

 

 

“Done!” Stiles declared with a hilarious victory dance.

 

“You’re such a loser, Stilinski.” Jackson snapped, walking up next to Thea.

 

“ _Jacks._ ” Danny warned.

 

“No it’s okay, Danny,” Stiles answered, “I’m used to Jackson being a douchebag. God forbid anyone think he doesn’t hate me for a second.”

 

Thea giggled at the accuracy of his statement. “I know right. Hold the press, Jackson Whittemore is being nice to Stiles Stilinski! We need to re-write the whole newspaper for today,” She turned to Jackson with a smirk, “don’t flatter yourself Jackson, you’re not that interesting.”

 

“Will you follow behind us or do you remember how to get to my house?” Stiles turned and asked Danny.

 

“Wait, what?” Jackson asked.

 

Danny ignored his best friend. “I remember, kind of hard to forget after last time.”

 

“What happened last time?” Jackson growled.

 

“Jacks and I will go back to my house so I can have a shower and get changed. You and Thea can do that at your house and then we’ll come over to yours and figure out what we want to do from there?” Danny asks.

 

Thea cut Stiles off with a smile. “Great! We can do lunch or something, Stiles looks like he’s about to eat me and for some strange reason I’m not a fan of that happening.”

 

“I wouldn’t eat you,” Stiles argued, offended, “you _do_ smell nice though.”

 

“Thanks for noticing, I’d say the same for you but well…” Thea gestured to his sweaty, disgusting body.

 

“You two done with flirting?” Jackson asked, eyebrow arched.

 

“If that’s what you consider flirting I seriously question the girls who’ve gone anywhere near you.” Thea shot back and turned to Danny, “We’ll meet you at Stiles’ then?”

 

“Give us like half an hour?”

 

“Sounds good. Stiles _might_ be out of the shower by then.”

 

“You’re the one that takes forever!”

 

 

Thea pulled Stiles by the arm towards his car, waving goodbye to Danny and sending a cheeky look at Jackson as she entwined her fingers with Stiles’ when she held his free hand. To his credit Stiles didn’t even flinch and raised their hands up to kiss her knuckles gently. Apparently Stiles _did_ have moves, just not around the right people. It wasn’t even until they got to the car that he dropped her hand. She slipped into the passenger seat and felt the now familiar rumble and vibrate of the car as Stiles turned it on.

 

 

“So what was that with Danny?” Thea asked with a grin.

 

“You said I could flirt with him.” Stiles blushed.

 

“Stiles,” Thea turned her body around to look at him, “be careful okay?”

 

“What?”

 

“Just- don’t give your hopes up okay?”

 

Stiles laughed. “ _Thea._ ”

 

“What?”

 

“I know it’s all just fun. I know Danny doesn’t like me that way, it has been _well_ established. He’s a nice guy though and it’s good practice.”

 

“You know flirting with a gay guy is different to how you flirt with a straight girl, right?”

 

“Yeah I know, it’s kind of fun to piss Jackson off too. He _really_ doesn’t want me anywhere near Danny.” Stiles grinned.

 

“I know! He’s so weird about it.”

 

“I’m pretty sure Jackson’s convinced _he_ is Danny’s ideal boyfriend type which makes no sense _at all_. I mean yeah, Jackson’s pretty stuck up and a total egomaniac but he’s straight.”

 

“Yeah that’s still on the table.”

 

“You think he’s not?” Stiles asked shocked.

 

“I think Jackson could walk into a room and have any person in it. I know it, we know it, he knows it. It’s a fact. It’s only going to stroke his ego for so long before he actually tries to get a hot guy in bed to prove something to himself.”

 

“Isn’t that what college is about?”

 

“Well yes but did you ever watch The L Word? Sexuality is fluid and all that…”

 

“The L Word?”

 

“A show about lesbians.”

 

“No but I have no problem with you introducing me to this show.” Stiles replied cheekily.

 

Thea shoved his shoulder playfully. “I was thinking we could watch Queer as Folk. Danny could lend us his copy, hell maybe he’d even watch it with us.”

 

“Just because Danny’s gay doesn’t mean he owns Queer As Folk on DVD.”

 

“It’s _Danny,_ he has it on DVD, Netflix and on a USB at the very least. Besides, you can’t talk about generalization Mr. Danny-do-gay-guys-find-me-attractive.”

 

“Shut up,” Stiles blushed, “I was young and stupid.”

 

“You asked him like three days ago.”

 

“Because one day he’s going to answer. It _will_ happen.”

 

 

Thea laughed and almost went face first into the dashboard when Stiles abruptly parked the car in his driveway. She heard him apologize and she waved him off declaring the first shower was hers. Using the key hidden under the worst fake rock in history, she let herself into the house. She toed her converse off in Stiles’ room and rummaged through his cupboard to find the clothes she’d stashed there the night before.

 

The shower was warm, not too hot or cold and Thea was glad she’d thrown her hair up into a messy bun because while she didn’t mind washing her hair, walking around with wet hair was _not_ her idea of fun. She grinned as she reached for Stiles’ body wash and she was glad it smelt so nice because she hadn’t remembered to bring her own over yet.

 

It was almost weird how okay the Sheriff was about her being around at all hours of the day and night. Thea had a theory that it was because the Sheriff figured the more time Stiles spent with her the less time he had to get in trouble on his own. The Sherriff probably felt guilty for not being around much as well and there was no way he didn’t know that Thea was in the same situation too. A dead father, a mother in prison on the way to being convicted for causing the deaths of five hundred people and an older brother saddled with the task of saving a Fortune 500 company and what was left of their family name. Thea didn’t really have anyone and in a way Stiles was like that too. They were kindred spirits, silly and overly dramatic and that’s why they connected so well. She’d only known Stiles for almost a week and she already felt closer to him than she ever did with any of her affluent friends back in Starling City.

 

 

“Thea?” Stiles knocked on the door gently.

 

“Almost done! Promise!” She called back.

 

 

The pipes groaned as she turned the water off. She quickly dried herself off with a towel and pulled on her underwear and bra along with a pair of short denim shorts and one of Stiles’ shirts that he would consider too tight on him. It was another one of his ironic shirts and baggy enough to let her move around freely but not too big that you couldn’t see her shorts. Thea slipped out of the bathroom and Stiles barely looked at his shirt that half swallowed her tiny frame.

 

 

“At least one of us it wearing it.” He shrugged.

 

“Hurry up and shower, the guys will be here soon.”

 

 

The pipes groaned as the water was turned back on and Thea wasn’t surprised when the doorbell rang. She jumped down the stairs and opened the door with a smile. Danny and Jackson stood on the other side of the doorway, Jackson looking reluctant and Danny looking clean and happy as usual. Thea waved them in and offered them a drink. Both declined and she shrugged, getting herself a glass of orange juice and leading them up to Stiles’ room. She made herself at home on Stiles’ bed and Danny took the computer chair leaving Jackson to stand there awkwardly.

 

 

Thea plugged her phone into the charger next to Stiles’ bed and ran a brush through her hair, now out of its messy bun. “So where are we thinking about going for lunch?”

 

“We were just thinking about going to McDonalds if that’s fine with you guys.” Danny answered.

 

“Stiles isn’t going to care, he’ll eat anything edible at this point.” Thea stretched out and sighed happily before turning to Jackson, “you know you can sit down on the bed, right? It’s not like a no Jackson zone or anything.”

 

“You seem pretty comfy there.” Jackson retorted.

 

“That’s because it is comfy. But fine, be a weird awkward person then.”

 

Danny chuckled. “Do I need to separate you two?”

 

“I don’t think that’s going to help us pass chemistry Danny but you know what they say about chemistry, some people have it and others just don’t.” Danny was about to reply when Thea’s phone rang and she fished it off the floor so she could answer it, “Stiles? Yeah, they’re here. Oh. Yeah that’s fine.”

 

Danny looked at her inquisitively. “So what was that about?”

 

Thea rolled off Stiles’ bed. “Stiles forgot to bring clothes into the bathroom with him and it’s not like he’s going to get changed with you guys in here.”

 

 

She quickly pulled out a pair of boxer briefs, jeans and a shirt before walking out of the room and knocking on the bathroom door. Stiles opened the door far enough to take the clothes off her and shut the door again with a snap. Thea walked back into his bedroom with a grin on her face, openly counting down the seconds with her fingers.

 

 

“ _Thea!”_

Danny grinned. “The skinny jeans?”

 

Thea nodded with a satisfied smirk. “They make his ass look really good.”

 

“Give it a few months and the squats will really pay off.” Danny agrees.

 

“Why are we talking about Stilinski’s ass?” Jackson asks.

 

“Because it’s a nice ass and we like it.” Thea replied, tilting her head to the side and giving him a challenging look.

 

“Are you always this sassy?” Danny grins.

 

“On Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays,” Thea replies flippantly. “Is this shirt okay or should I try and find another one? It’s hard to find something in his closet that isn’t five sizes too big for _him._ ”

 

Danny shakes his head. “It’s fine, not too big. It looks like you’re going for a causal style.”

 

“You’re wearing his clothes now?” Jackson asks.

 

“They’re comfy and my other shirt is covered in Stiles’ sweat.” Thea bit her lip and sent him a look.

 

 

Stiles walked into the room glaring at Thea who blew him a dramatic kiss. She dodged the dirty clothes he threw her way and in the process fell of his bed and onto her ass with a thud. Stiles laughed and sat down on the edge of his bed. Thea gave him the finger before shoving him over so she could lie down with her head on his thigh.

 

 

“We’ve decided on McDonald’s.” She told him.

 

“Sounds good, I’ll pay.”

 

Thea sat up. “I don’t think so buddy.”

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because what’s the point of you being my kept boy if I don’t shower you in food and other things?”

 

“Kept boy?” Danny grinned.  


“Yeah but without the sex.” Thea explained.

 

“Believe it or not I’m not even upset by the lack of sex in the arrangement.” Stiles sighed. “And last year I was ready to let anyone have sex with me to lose my virginity.”

 

“I remember,” Danny laughed, “I believe I offered my services.”

 

“You did?” Jackson asked, looking sharply at his best friend.

 

“Yeah but it was a joke.” Danny explained.

 

“And you’re still playing with my emotions Danny Boy. It’s not very nice.”

 

Danny threw a pencil at Stiles. “You wouldn’t know what to do with nice.”

 

Stiles groaned. “You’re right and that’s kind of depressing.”

 

* * *

 

“So this is Jackson’s humble abode?” Thea asked, taking in the modern house.

 

 

Danny hummed in agreement and gave her and Stiles a quick tour while Jackson hid whatever was apparently incriminating in his room. Thea wasn’t sure what on earth he could be hiding that she hadn’t already seen, used or come into contact with in Starling City. Porn, alcohol and drugs didn’t even interest her, she hadn’t touch the latter since her birthday party where she’d all but wrapped her brand new convertible around a tree.

 

When it was safe to go to Jackson’s room Thea made a point of taking in every aspect of the room. A person’s bedroom showed a lot about a person and she was disappointed to see nothing but trophies and a streamlined modern bedroom. There was nothing that showed Jackson’s true personality and she wondered if that was due to his relationship with his adoptive parents. She wasn’t sure if it made her sad or just disappointed. If she wanted to figure out Jackson Whittemore and all his secrets she would have to do it the hard way or just bribe the absolute crap out of Danny.

 

 

“Make yourselves at home,” Danny flopped out on Jackson’s bed, “I do.”

 

Thea herded Stiles so he was sitting next to Danny and she sat down on his lap. “So what are we even doing in Chemistry?”

 

Stiles didn’t even react to her presence. “What do you know about the periodic table?”

 

“The what?”

 

“Periodic table,” Danny repeated, “the table of elements.”

 

Thea groaned and let her head drop down on Stiles’ shoulder. “Kill me.”

 

Stiles laughed. “It’s not that bad. Jackson’s not horrible at Chemistry either, I’ve seen his marks so don’t let him fool you into doing all the work.”

 

“Since when have you seen my marks Stilinski?” Jackson asked, walking out of his walk in closet shirtless.

 

“Lydia and I have been competing for the best GPA since we knew what GPAs were, you really think we don’t constantly check and see where we are in the rankings?” Stiles asked, watching as Jackson slowly pulled on a tight shirt.

 

“Who’s winning right now?” Thea asked.

 

“I am but Lydia’s better at Economics than I am.”

 

“That’s because you wrote an entire essay on the history of the male circumsism.” Danny pointed out.

 

“You did _what?_ ” Thea looked at Stiles who smiled sheepishly.

 

“Yeah my ADHD and non existent attention span doesn’t exactly help me when I take exams.”

 

 

 

Thea crawled off Stiles’ lap and sat down cross-legged on Jackson’s bed. It took a few loaded looks from Danny for Jackson to sit down next to her and even then Thea could see Jackson was freaked out by the whole situation. Thea decided the best course of action was to act like this was a completely normal situation. She tried to pay attention as Danny and Stiles attempted to simplify things for her but even then all it did was make her head hurt. Jackson just sat next to her occasionally throwing in his opinion or adding to something Danny and Stiles had said. Thea was amazed that he hadn’t insulted anyone thus far. It was actually kind of nice.

 

Truthfully she was only really half attempting to understand that course work. Thea had always enjoyed watching others and the way they interacted with others. She could tell Danny and Stiles had settled into an easy going camaraderie the same way she could tell Jackson wasn’t quite comfortable with it. Thea couldn’t tell if it was because of jealousy or something else. It wasn’t like Stiles was going to steal Danny away but the only other option was that Jackson was jealous about Stiles and she wasn’t delusional enough to immediately check that box. It was going to take less than six days to enlighten Jackson to a new train of thought.

 

 

Thea jumped when Stiles nudged her with a pen. “What?! What’s going on?”

 

“You completely missed all of that didn’t you?” Stiles asked with a sigh.

 

“Sorry,” She said sheepishly. “I got lost in my train of thought.”

 

“It’s okay, we’re talking about the molecular orbital theory.” Danny smiled at her.

 

Thea put her head in her hands. “This is ridiculous. Chemistry is stupid.”

 

“No, Harris is stupid.” Jackson corrected her.

 

“He’s not a good educator,” Stiles agreed, “He spends half the lesson insulting me because my father investigated him a few years ago for murder.”

 

“Great so he’s petty _and_ a crappy teacher.” Thea sighed.

 

“Is there a subject you’re good at?” Stiles asked. “More than the others, I mean.”

 

“I’m pretty good at English,” Thea shrugged, “I mean it’s not like I really even went to class or tried at my old school. Money talks and keeps rich kids like me in school even when we should be kicked out.”

 

“So how about we help you with your Chemistry and you help Jackson with English?” Danny suggested.

 

“Sure.”

 

“If you didn’t go to class how are you good at English?” Jackson asked.

 

“My brother Ollie, when he was gone I did a lot of partying and I got lost in that scene. When he came back and I became an absolute train wreck he made me start reading books, the ones he would have read if he had ever stayed in College long enough to do a semester. He wanted me to be better than him, he still does. I’ve read everything from The Great Gatsby to The Odyssey.”

 

“Okay fine we have an agreement. You get a good grade in Chemistry and I get a good grade in English.”

 

“Isn’t that cheating?”

 

Jackson shrugs. “I’d like to see them deconstruct poetry while keeping a 3.9 GPA while captaining the swim team and co-captaining the lacrosse team.”

 

Thea smiled. “See, you’re learning something.”

 

“What?”

 

“You said co-captain.” Stiles answered, chewing on his highlighter cap.

 

“So?”

 

“You always say captain.” Danny pointed out.

 

Jackson rolled his eyes. “Are you all going to shut up and keep going with this crap or are we all going to sit and hold hands while we braid our hair all day?”

 

“What is with men and being adverse to things that are considered even slightly feminine?” Thea huffed.

 

Danny threw an eraser at her. “Don’t generalize. Just because Jackson’s emotionally unavailable doesn’t mean the rest of us are.”

 

“I’m not emotionally unavailable.” Jackson snapped.

 

“No you’re just a jackass.” Stiles smiled.

 

Thea covered Jackson’s mouth with her hand and turned to Danny. “You know I totally think we need coffee, you want to do a coffee run with me Danny? I’ll pay of course.”

 

Danny nodded and held his hand out to Jackson who looked like he wanted to kill Thea. “Keys, man.”

 

Jackson shoved Thea’s hand away with a withering glare. “Why?”

 

“Because Thea and I are either going in your car or Stiles’.”

 

Jackson sighed and tossed Danny the keys. “Do _not_ do anything to that car I wouldn’t do.”

 

“Somehow I don’t think Thea and I will be having sex in your car.”

 

 

Stiles choked and Thea gave him a kiss on the cheek before following Danny out of Jackson’s house. Danny pulled out of the driveway smoothly and Thea all but sank into the soft beautiful seat. Despite the fact that she liked the Jeep and it’s charm, this was what she was used to. The radio was turned down low, barely background music to ease the drive to Starbucks.

 

 

“You think one of them is dead yet?” She asked.

 

Danny smiled, eyes still on the road. “It’s Jackson and Stiles. There’s a forty percent chance we’ll come back and one of them will have a broken nose.”

 

“That’s oddly specific.”

 

“Stiles has punched Jackson before, he made a crack about his dad apparently and Stiles didn’t take it well. Jacks is just lucky he didn’t say anything about Stiles’ mom.”

 

“How much do you know about his mom?”

 

“I know what everyone else knows, she died when Stiles was eight and he’s had panic attacks ever since. Stiles and I have never really been that close and even now it’s not like I ask him about his dead mother.”

 

“You know mine might be getting the death penalty,” Thea kept her face turned towards the passenger seat window, looking anywhere but at Danny.

 

“Really?”

 

“Yeah and to tell you the truth I’m so mad at her I don’t really care.”

 

“She’s your mom, at some point you will.”

 

“I feel bad though, Stiles would probably give anything to see his mom and I haven’t seen mine since her incarceration. I wish he could see his mom again. I’m wasting something he doesn’t get but it’s hard. She killed so many people Danny.”

 

“She saved a lot of people too, warning the city.”

 

“Because she felt bad,” Thea said bitterly, “she might be my mother but she’s not a good person. Stiles’ mom was probably a wonderful person.”

 

“Maybe you should ask him one day.” Danny suggested.

 

“Maybe.”

 

 

The line was a large one and Thea stood in line next to Danny who seemed to be getting approached by everyone in the shop. Apparently Stiles hadn’t been joking about Danny being the most liked person at their school. A girl even tried to give Danny her number and Thea tried to stifle her giggles the entire time. It was painful and Danny looked like he wanted to be as far away from the girl as possible. Thea understood the sentiment; the girl wasn’t classy at all.

 

 

“So, Mr. Mahealani, who are you?” Thea asked.

 

“Oldest child of the mayor, lacrosse goalie, the only currently out gay guy at BHHS.” Danny shrugged.

 

Thea checked him gently with her hip. “You know what I meant.”

 

“I’m good with computers, I want to go to MIT and after that I have no idea,” he confessed, “I always pick really horrible guys to date and I spend more time than not making sure Jackson doesn’t do something moronically stupid.”

 

“I’m Thea Queen,” Thea held out her hand, “I’m the heir to a Fortune 500 company, my mother is a mass murder, I have no plans for after high school and I spend more time than not wondering why everyone in my family lies to me and keeps secrets from me.”

 

Danny shook her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

 

“Likewise.”

 

“You’re really the heir?”

 

“Ollie’s the CEO but if he doesn’t have kids or pass the mantle on to someone else it will go to me. I don’t want it and with Felicity around he probably won’t resign or step down any time soon so there’s a chance I won’t ever be in charge of the company.”

 

“Well then I hope for your sake you never have to.”

 

“You’re really sweet, anyone ever tell you that?”

 

“All the time.”

 

 

Danny put his order in with the barista and Thea tacked her order on the end of it before handing her shiny plastic debit card over to the woman. As they waited for their order she and Danny traded stories about growing up. Thea briefly remembered that Danny and Boyd were the only two out of the group that had siblings. She’d spent so long without Ollie that it was nice listening to Danny chatter on about his younger siblings and how annoying they could be. Having younger siblings seemed wonderful and infuriating at the same time. Thea wondered if that was what it was like for Stiles and Scott growing up so close to each other.

 

 

“So are you still serious about this whole Jackson and Stiles thing?” Danny asked, picking their order up from the counter.

 

“Yes but I know you can’t force someone to like someone. I’m just creating scenarios and watching how they interact and react. Maybe they hate each other, maybe there’s something there. We don’t know but we’re going to find out.”

 

“Just be careful,” Danny warned, “I know Jackson and I like Stiles, the last thing I want is Jackson hurting him.”

 

“You know that almost sounds like you’re on board with me, Danny.” Thea smiled as she followed him to Jackson’s car.

 

“I worry about Jackson, he is his own worst enemy. Stiles could be good for him. I mean he could be horrible for him too but Stiles has a way of giving people a reality check.”

 

Thea laughed. “He’s out there, isn’t he?”

 

“He really is.” Danny agreed.

 

Thea took the coffee tray from him and slid into her seat. She waited until Danny was driving out of the car park before she spoke again. “He didn’t take well to your flirting this morning.”

 

“This morning?”

 

“When you were helping Stiles with lacrosse.”

 

Danny chuckled. “That wasn’t flirting.”

 

“All I’m saying is don’t be surprised if you get cornered by Jackson who has a PowerPoint and speech ready about all the reasons why you can’t date Stiles.”

 

“He really didn’t like it?”

 

“Nope.” Thea popped the ‘p’.

 

“And Stiles knows nothing is ever happening between us?”

 

“Yep.”

 

Danny sighed. “Fine, I’ll help you.”

 

“Yes! I love you Danny! You are amazing.”

 

“I know.”

 

“By the way I have another question to ask you.”

 

“Okay?”

 

“Do you have a copy of Queer as Folk that Stiles and I could borrow?”

  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter ended completely different to how I envisioned it. I love Danny and I hope you all do too because they're about to spend a lot more time with each other. I'm also working on having Thea spend some more time with the rest of the group and Oliver and Felicity will be back within the next chapter or two depending on how I end up writing it. 
> 
> Is there anyone you want Thea to interact with? Remember that this story is from her POV so there's only so much information I can give you about interactions that aren't first hand. I can only tell you what Thea knows! 
> 
> So tell me who you want Thea to interact with or something you'd like me to try and incorporate to this story. This story could last for a brief period of time or this story could cover their whole entire senior year. I can't promise to give you everything you want but I can try and slide some things in to please you all.
> 
> Also I promise as horrible as I am at updating this, I will NEVER abandon this story. I'm also working on a Stanny wedding fic because someone prompted me on tumblr. Follow me on skyewatsonfics for more info and updates plus it's nice to know how many of you actually care about what I write.


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